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MOORE'S 

SELECT LIBRARY., 



SUMMER'S JAUNT 



ACROSS THE WATER. 



INCLUDING 

VISITS TO ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE, 
SWITZERLAND, GERMANY, BELGIUM, ETC. 



BY J. JAY SMITH, 

LIBRARIAN OF THE PHILADELPHIA AND LOGANIAN LIBRARIES. 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 






VOL. I. 






- -<v; 






• 




jjiil^i---"'' 


PHILADELPHIA: 






. W. MOOR 


E. 




1846. 







Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 

By J. W. Moore, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 

of Pennsylvania. 






C. SHERMAN, PRINTER, 

(<^ 19 St. James Street. 



A 



\%^ 



TO , ^ 

GEANVILLE JOHN PENN, ESQ., 

OF 

STOKE PARK, ENGLAND, 

THESE HASTILY WRITTEN LETTERS 

ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 

AS AN EVIDENCE OF REGARD, AND AS A MEMORIAL OF 

THE PLEASURE AFFORDED BY HIS ACQUAINTANCE AND ATTENTIONS 

DURING A VISIT MEMORABLE TO THE AUTHOR 

FOR HAVING RENOVATED, 

AFTER THE LAPSE OF A CENTURY AND A HALF, 

THE FRIENDSHIPS 

BEGUN BY THEIR RESPECTIVE ANCESTORS, 

AT THE DATE OF THE EARLY SETTLEMENT OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following letters were written during a hasty glance 
at some of the countries of Europe, to which the author 
went without much preparation of thought ; a sudden de- 
parture gave small opportunity to procure introductions, 
or, to form plans ; indeed it was contemplated to do little 
more than visit London and Paris, and to return immedi- 
ately, after trying the utility of a sea-voyage. Once upon 
the soil of Europe, the interest of the scenes invited me 
onward ; x^ontrast succeeded contrast so rapidly, that it be- 
came difficult to break away, and thus I was tempted to pay 
hurried visits to Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and Scot- 
land, seeing, it is true, only the surface in those countries, 
but highly gratified even with this. In England I en- 
joyed greater facilities; and having every where experi- 
enced the greatest kindness, even from perfect strangers, 
I consult my own feelings in recommending all who can 
afford the time, to go and do likewise ; they will lay up 
a fund of agreeable recollections, which time only can 
efface. If, like me, they will work hard, and write their 
first impressions immediately on the spot, they will en- 
title themselves to all the praise I have earned, and may 
with less propriety than myself, call their book " Surface 



Vlll INTRODUCTION. 

Sketches." I cannot but think that a sudden departure, 
by which so much is saved to the feeUngs, has its advan- 
tages over a lengthened preparation : 

" Pleasure that comes unlocked for is thrice welcome ; 

And if it stir the heart, if aught be there, 

That may hereafter, in a thoughtful hour, 

Wake but a sigh, 'tis treasured up among 

The things most precious ; and the day it came, 

Is noted as a white day in our lives." 

Rogers. 

" Sight- seeing," truly says an amiable lady and a good 
writer, " includes many Christian virtues, and a large 
share of corporeal strength. It requires its possessor to 
be meek, long-suffering, and believing ; to be patient 
where he feels no interest, and to deny himself where he 
does ; to be able to watch long, fast long, and stand long, 
and finally, to kiss the rod when he has done," I appeal 
to every traveller from America who has done much at 
" sight-seeing," to confirm the lady's and my own ex- 
perience. 

Having endeavoured to describe rather than to gene- 
ralize, the letters are published in the undress in which 
they were written. 



CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 



THE VOYAGE OUT. 

Lettek I. — Introduction ; Novel situation ; Prospect of visiting 
Europe ; Reason for going ; Short preparation ; The Saranak ; 
Passengers ; At anchor in the bay ; Anecdote ; The captain ; A 
man secreted ; The steam tug ; First dinner ; River navigation ; 
Impediment of the river ; The pilot leaves, - - - 15 

Letter II. — Journalizing; Invalids; Remedy; A "horse;" 
Babes in the wood ; Irish girl in a consumption ; The steerage 
passengers ; Their discomforts ; Contrast ; The black cook ; 
Exemption from sickness ; Going back ; Anecdote ; Our news- 
paper at sea ; Sunday ; Irregular hours ; Items of a Spring voy- 
age ; Berths ; Alarm ; Anecdotes of steerage passengers : Ex- 
tracts from the Daily Sea Gull ; Apples ; The mate a bird 
fancier ; Want of a propeller ; Approach to land ; The condition 
of sailors ; First light-house ; North passage ; Rathlin Island ; 
Prepare to land in a pilot-boat, - - - - - 19 

IRELAND. 

Letter III.— Gale and fog ; Uncomfortable situation ; A pilot is 
seen; Four of us land at Bangor; Irish jaunting car; Ship's 
letter-bag; Beauty of the country; "The heir of Bangor;" 
First impressions of Ireland ; Donegal Arms at Belfast ; Set out 
for the Giant's Causeway ; Town of Antrim ; Huts of the poor ; 
Bleach greens ; Irish bull ; Round tower ; Shane's castle ; Lord 
O'Neill; His property; Lough Neagh — Coleraine ; Dunluce 
Castle ; The female guide ; Giant's Causeway ; the rabble of 
would-be guides ; Wet to the skin ; The hotel ; Embark to see 
the caves ; Writing a bore to a hurried traveller, - - 31 
VOL. I. 1 



X CONTENTS. 

Letter IV. — The Giant's Causeway ; The caves; The low pier; 
Garrulous guide ; Crystallization of basalt ; Size of the Cause- 
way ; Spanish Armada ; Pleaskin ; Its magnitude ; Kohl recom- 
mended ; Sir Walter Scott ; Album ; Discharge of a guide ; Ad- 
vice to travellers, 38 

Letter V. — Sir E. McNaughten's Castle ; The Causeway little 
visited; Return to Belfast ; Find my companions of the ship; 
Ride to Dublin ; Appearance of the country ; Absentees ; Sir 
Henry Pottinger ; Mr. Macready ; Police ; Homeliness of the 
people ; Dunkald ; A market-day ; Paddy and his pig ; Fashions; 
Donkey-carts ; Neddy ; Sweeping up manure ; Railroad to Dub- 
lin ; Regulations ; Cars ; Efficient police at stations, &c. ; 
Rain, 42 

Letter VI. — Atmospheric railway; Prince Albert's prize beef? 
The Queen's share ; A present ; Library of Dublin University ; 
Its appearance and contents ; The students ; Ignorance respect- 
ing America; Failure of the U. S. Bank not heard of; A situa- 
tion under Van Buren ; Buffalo sporting at Philadelphia ; Good 
humour of the people ; An Irish wag; Beggars ; How treated ; 
War with America ; Ireland friendly ; Relieving guard at the 
castle ; Good music ; Drum major ; Idlers ; The 44th regiment ; 
The 32d, 46 

Letter VII. — Pleasure of travel ; Set out for the south of Ireland ; 
Crying and laughing climate ; Appearance of the country ; 
Watering-pot ; The landscape ; Park ; Deer ; Ivy ; The pas- 
sengers ; Information ; No way-passengers ; May day ; System ; 
The guard and coachman ; Bianconi ; Kilkenny ; Duke of Or- 
mond; His castle ; His marriage ; Parties; The beggars; Er- 
roneous opinions of Ireland ; Want of employment ; Wages ; 
Servants ; Clonmel ; Gas in Tipperary ; Pig market ; The family 
estate ; Flouring mills ; Domesticated at Clonmel ; Security of 
the people ; Gentry ; Dinner ; Gardens, - - - - 51 

Letter VIII. — A traveller's experience; Servants; Brogue; 
Straw for mats; Old hotel; Description; Curtains for flags; 
Furniture ; Moss and grass; Stage-coach breakfast; Antiquity ; 
Dogs; Donkeys; Donkey cart and lady passenger; A gentle- 
man's residence; Dinner; Conversation; Manners; Railroad 



CONTENTS. XI 

mania ; The lines sanctioned ; Nearest route to America ; Hos- 
pitality to Americans ; Start for Cashell ; The car ; Bianconi; 
Rock of Cashell ; Round tower and castle ; Antiquity must be 
seen to be appreciated ; Ruins of monastic establishments, 58 

Letter IX. — Cultivation ; Ireland's misery ; Resident landlords ; 
Ivy ; Lord Portarlington's domain ; Its miserable state ; A thin 
post-master; The small mail; A mud hovel; Wretchedness; 
Alas! poor Ireland; Dublin; St. Patrick's Cathedral; An- 
tiquity ; Repairs ; Dust of ages ; St. Patrick ; Statues ; Dean 
Swift ; His bust ; Stella ; The Four Courts ; Lawyers ; Wigs ; 
Ludicrous appearance ; One worn in Philadelphia; Sir Edward 
Sugden ; His salary ; Baron Penefather ; The Castle ; The Lord 
Lieutenant ; Salary again ; The Castle Chapel ; Busts ; Phcenix 
Park ; Post-office ; The mails starting, - - ... 64 

Letter X. — Foreman of O'Connell's jury; O'Connell's prison; 
The prisoners' treatment; Nice apartments; His supplies; 
Light imprisonment ; Conduct of his followers ; His reception 
tent ; Irish prisons ; The silent and the Pennsylvania systems ; 
Neither practised; Gold dog-collars; Lord Ross's telescope, 70 

ENGLAND. 

Letter XL — Leave Dublin ; English steamboat to Liverpool ; 
Chester races ; The docks ; Railroad for London ; Its excellence ; 
Coaches ; Tunnels ; Civility of the officers ; Contrast ; London ; 
Light sovereigns ; The Great Britain steam-ship ; Blackwall 
railway ; Thames Tunnel ; A failure ; Appearance of London ; 
First impressions ; The League Bazaar, ... 75 

Letter XII. — Facilities of a trip to Europe ; Mr. Derby's flying 
visit ; What he accomplished in sixty-two days from Boston ; 
The expenses ; Contrast with 1806 ; No post-coaches ; Lionizing; 
The London streets ; Civility ; Regent Street ; The distances ; 
Liveries ; Carriages ; The coachmen ; Signs ; Advertisements ; 
Omnibus drivers ; Beer sled ; Rain ; Music grinders ; Tumblers ; 
Houses of Lords and Commons ; The Woolsack ; Westminster 
Abbey; Dean Wilberforce ; Worship; Poet's Corner; The 
tour of the monuments ; The tooth of ages ; The guide ; The 
chapels ; Cleaning ; Great names ; Henry the Seventh's Chapel ; 



Xll CONTENTS. 

Tombs of Henry and others ; Royal vault ; Edward the Confes- 
sor; Royal stone of Scotland; Coronation chairs; More monu- 
ments; Major Andre; Chilliness, 79 

Letter XIII. — Go among living people ; Breakfast with a literary 
bachelor; Hatchments; A bachelor's apartments; The Reform 
Club; The clerk and footman's duties; The library; The in- 
terior of the club-house ; The furniture ; Scagliola ; Dining- 
room ; The kitchen ; The head cook and his assistants ; The 
marketing, fish, &c. ; Mons. Soyer ; The cook a man of vertii ; 
His wife a painter of celebrity ; His studio ; Dressing-rooms ; 
Bedchambers ; Cost of the Club-house ; Number of members ; 
Card-playing ; Makes unhappy homes ; The Conservative Club- 
house ; Grand effect ; Prices of food ; Ury the cook ; His salary ; 
Uses of a club ; Guildhall ; Mansion house ; Royal institution ; 
Mr. Faraday ; Titled audience ; Mr. F. a model lecturer ; Anti- 
slavery Society ; Texas annexation ; State of the Jamaica 
blacks, 87 

Letter XIV. — Chiswick Gardens ; Exhibition; Crowd; Police; 
Price of admission ; Splendid scene ; Music ; The fruits ; The 
company ; The nobility ; The display of flowers ; Mrs. Law- 
rence's tent ; Holly hedge ; Number present ; Rain ; Draggled 
visiters; Sir John Rennie's Conversazione; Civil engineers; 
The company ; Bishop of London ; Mr. Hallam ; Dr. Ure ; Dr. 
Mantell; Sir John's preparations; Model room; Inventions; 
Duke of Wellington and Prince Albert ; Dr. Fothergill's resi- 
dence ; Botanical rarities ; The trees ; Elizabeth Fry ; Mr. 
Everett ; Mr. Hacket ; The weather ; Greenwich hospital ; 
Whitebait dinner ; Pensioners ; School for boys ; Ship on dry 
land, 95 

Letter XV. — English tourists in America ; Sunday in London ; 
Service at St. Paul's ; Silver key ; Ordination ; Sermon ; Music ; 
Chaunting boys ; Streets on Sunday ; Bolt Court ; Dr. Johnson's 
house ; The parks on the Sabbath ; Serpentine River ; Wild 
ducks ; Chelsea pensioners ; Policemen ; Goat phaetons ; Sheep ; 
Cows ready to be milked ; Birds ; The scene ; Satan Mont- 
gomery; Ipswich; Thomas Clarkson ; His dwelling, age, and 
health, &c. ; His autograph ; Priscilla Wakefield ; William 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

Kirby; Cardinal Wolsey's gateway; Evrington's shawl ware- 
house ; Cashmere ; Prices, &c., 101 

Letter XVI. — Hints to visiters in London ; Royal Antiquarian 
Society; Royal Society; Marquis of Northampton ; Dr. Roget; 
Colonel Sabine ; Manuscript of Newton's Principia ; The Queen 
and " Royal Consort;" The children; Rev. Thomas Hartwell 
Home ; Library of the British Museum ; Its apartments ; trea- 
sures, manuscripts, authors, early printed books, missals ; The 
librarian ; Book publishers ; Paternoster Row ; English garden- 
ing ; Loddige's palm house ; Beauty of English gardens ; Prices 
of fruit ; the Queen at the Haymarket ; Mr. Hacket, - 108 

Letter X VII.— Barclay's Brewery ; Its extent ; The vats ; Value 
of one ; Horses ; Naked men ; Boilers ; Malt bins ; Cats ; Bury- 
ing-ground; The descendants of William Penn; Stoke Park; 
Trees and deer; Proposed visit to Oxford; Lady Grenville's 
place at Dropmore ; Pinetum ; Aurancaria ; Douglass pine, 114 

Letter XVIII. — Oxford; the Colleges; Their construction; 
Christ's Chapel ; Burton, author of the Anatomy of Melancholy; 
His bust the home of a robin ; Dr. Pusey ; His appearance ; His 
benevolence ; Dinner at the noblemen's table ; A wine party ; 
Angel Inn; Pictures; Statues; Library^ Kitchen; Boating; 
Death ; The twelve Csesars ; University press ; Botanic gar- 
den, - - - - - 117 

Letter XIX. — Oxford; Bodleian Library; Manuscripts; Illus- 
trating Burnet and Clarendon; Posting to Blenheim ; Titian's 
gallery ; The house ; Pictures ; Present Duke of Marlborough ; 
Tapestry, &c. ; Private gardens ; Artificial water ; Trees ; Deer; 
Preserves ; Gravel walks ; Hereditary possessors ; The Duke's 
column; Rosamond's well; The weather; Woodstock; Return 
to London ; Ignorance respecting America ; Anniversaries ; The 
season ; Imitations ; London docks ; Wine ; Tasters ; Merchan- 
dise ; Revenue from tobacco ; Cigars ; Wealth ; Newspapers ; 
Queen's drawing-room ; Review ; Outside view of the pageant ; 
The people; The scene in the Park; Coach of the Speaker; 
Conclude to sail for France, 121 

1* 



XIV CONTENTS. 



FRANCE. 

Letter XX. — A letter from under the sun ; Passage to France ; 
A real John Bull ; Dover and Walmer Castles ; Havre ; Pass- 
ports ; Custom-houses ; The Diligence ; Description ; The guard; 
French farming ; Old towns of Normandy ; Lively French girl ; 
Arrival at Rouen, -- 135 

Letter XXI. — First impressions of Rouen ; The hotel ; Grotesque 
appearances ; French postilions ; The steamboat ; Labourers ; 
Commerce ; Antiquity ; Houses; Shops; Cathedral; Interior; 
Monuments ; Butter Tower ; St. Ouen ; Library and Museum ; 
Illuminated MS. ; Musee ; St. Patrice ; Hotel de Bourgtheroude ; 
Arrival at Paris, - - - - 141 

Letter XXII. — The railroad; Reminiscences; Meurice's Hotel; 
Remove to lodgings ; Description ; Mr. Walsh ; Sample dinner 
at the Palais Royal ; The Seine ; Champs Elysees ; Place de la 
Concorde ; Amusements ; Obelisk of Luxor, - - - 147 

Letter XXIII. — Historical recollections ; The Tuileries ; Bib- 
liotheque du Roi ; M. Joumard ; The treasures of the library ; 
MSS. ; Engravings; Antiquities; Monument to Moliere ; Sun- 
day in Paris ; Worship at St. Roque ; The King's apartments in 
the Palais Royal; Minister of public worship, - - 153 

Letter XXIV. — Paris fatiguing ; Deliberate people ; The climate; 
St. Cloud; Napoleon's country residence; Example of French 
taste ; The Water- Works; Want of Water, &c., in Paris; St. 
Denis ; Burial-place of the Kings of France ; Effigies ; French 
glory ; Peace ; Meeting of the Institute ; Arago ; Dr. M , 159 

Letter XXV. — Versailles; Handsome .railroad depot; Seven 
miles and a half of pictures and statues ; Portraits ; Historical 
gallery; Mediocrity; Bonaparte's history; Louis Phihppe's ; 
The Chapel ; Medals ; Impressions created by battle scenes ; 
The King's private garden; Fountains; Recruits; Female 
ticket-sellers ; Patches of land; Grapes; Farmers; Shepherd's 

' dog, 164 



CONTENTS. XV 

Letter XXVI. — Jardin des Plantes ; Mineralogical cabinet ; 
Cuvier, Jussieu, &c. ; Science patronised by the government ; 
Contrasted with England ; Collection of plants ; Cabinet of 
comparative anatomy ; Five courses of lectures ; The garden ; 
The Artesian well ; The Grenelle ; Champ de Mars ; Hotel des 
Invalides; Napoleon's tomb ; Fprtifications of Paris; Anecdote 
of an invalid, 169 

Letter XXVIL — Hotel de Ville ; Guillotine ; Robespierre's 
council-room ; Hotel de Sully ; Notre Dame ; The Madeleine ; 
Alto relievo ; Description ; The Gobelin manufactory ; Splen- 
dour of the articles ; Contrast with England as regards fees ; 
Louis Philippe ; Anecdote, 177 

Letter XXVIII. — Napoleon and Josephine's house ; His succes- 
sive residences ; Place Vendome ; Napoleon's figure ; Chapel 
commemorative of the Duke of Orleans ; The painting repre- 
senting his death ; Expiatory chapel ; Cemetery of Pere la 
Chaise ; Ney ; Cemeteries inferior to the American, - 182 

Letter XXIX. — Chamber of Deputies ; Appearance and members 
of note ; Manners ; House of Lords ; Lord Brougham ; The 
Morgue; Banks of the Seine; Firewood; The Cocoo ; The 
cab-gig; Sleepy drivers; Prices; The "turn-outs;" French 
private life ; Dinners ; Versailles ; Jerome Bonaparte's son ; 
Trianon; Bonaparte's furniture ; Petit Trianon ; Evening with 
the royal family, 187 

Letter XXX. — Contrasts ; Armed police ; Secret police ; Deter- 
mine to visit Mont Blanc, &c. ; The medical schools; Musee 
Dupuytren ; Charlotte Corday ; Secondhand shops ; Pantheon ; 
The monuments of Rousseau and Voltaire ; Marshal Lannes ; 
The echo ; The fabriques ; The flower season ; Place de la 
Bastille ; Column of July ; Viscount D' Arlincourt ; Academy of 
Fine Arts; School of the Fine Arts; Louvre, - - 194 

SWITZERLAND. 

Letter XXXI. — Leave Paris; The banquette; The road; Ave- 
rage speed ; Meal-times ; Companions ; Carriage dogs ; Appear- 
ance of the country ; Solitude ; Ascent of the Jura ; The road ; 



XVI CONTENTS. 

Scenery ; St. Laurent ; Passports ; Douane de France ; Descent 
of the mountain ; Extraordinary- beauty of the scene ; Zigzag 
road ; Geneva ; Lake Leman ; The Rhone ; Hotel des Bergues ; 

Chateau of Mons. ; Ferney; Voltaire's residence; The 

house and grounds, 203 

Letter XXXII. — Visit to a chateau ; The scenery ; The group of 
children ; Happy family ; Population of Geneva ; Travellers ; 
Feud ; Cabinets of natural history ; Library ; Calvin's MSS. ; 
Knox ; Sismondi ; Fellow-travellers to Mont Blanc ; Sardinian 
frontier ; Douane ; Salenches ; Char-a-banc ; The Arve ; Baths 
of St. Gervaise ; View of Mont Blanc ; Chamouni ; Travellers 
of all nations ; Anecdote ; The hotels ; The guides ; Ascent of 
the Flegere ; The Chalet ; Flowers and snow ; Alpine straw- 
berries; Sunset at Chamouni, -, 210 

Letter XXXIII.— Mer de Glace ; Chalet of Montanvert ; The 
Scene ; Pococke and Wyndham ; History of the Valley ; Album 
at the Chalet ; A sample ; Fatigue of the descent ; Height of 
Mont Blanc; Temperature; Return to Geneva: Guerre des 
enfants; Lausanne; Vevay; Castle of Chillon; An evening on 
Lake Leman ; Hard work, --.-.. 217 

Letter XXXIV. — American traveller ; Hofwyl ; Fellenburg's 
sons; Agricultural schools; Freyburg; Feudal. watch-towers; 
The great suspension bridges ; The organ of Freyburg ; Portal 
of the church ; The good and bad ; Jesuits ; Jargon of languages; 
Anecdote; Berne; Fountains; Bears; Costume; Library, 226 

Letter XXXV.— Thun ; Hotel Belle vue ; The lake ; Church in 
the hotel ; Start for Interlachen ; Peasant women ; Interlachen ; 
The resort of English ; Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald ; Ava- 
lanches, 231 

Letter XXXVI. — Grindelwald ; Dancing on Sunday ; Lake of 
Brienz ; Boys on a course ; Falls of the Giesbach ; Accident ; 
ValeofHasli; Meyringen; Baths of Reichenbach ; Cross the 

- LungernPass; Lungern, ...... 236 

Letter XXXVII. — Lungern lake drained ; Alpnach ; Boat girls ; 
Mount Pilatus; Slide of Alpnach ; Lucerne; A beauty; The 
scene ; The expulsion of the Jesuits, . - . - 240 



CONTENTS. XVll 

Letter XXXVIII. — Heroes of the land of Tell ; The appearance 
of the inhabitants ; The republic of Gersau ; The lake ; Tell's 
coiintry ; The peasants ; English tourist ; Pic-nic party ; Mount 
Pilate ; The Rhigi ; Its ascent ; Gersau ; Brunnen ; American 
travellers from Italy; Tell's chapel; Altorf; Tell and his son; 
return to Lucerne, - - - - « - - - - 344 

Letter XXXIX. — The Lion of Lucerne; Holbein's Dance of 
Death ; A funeral ; The church cloisters ; Convent ; Tell's 
sword ; Lucerne to Zurich ; Slov^ travelling ; Zug ; Heraldry 
among republicans ; Zurich; Iron manufactures; Hotel Baur; 
Peculiarities ; Dignitaries ; The Diet ; Table des Ambassadeurs; 
The dinner ; Legislation ; Farming ; The river Limmat ; A tea 
machine, 248 

Letter XL. — Zuinglius, and other reformers ; Gessner ; Lavater ; 
Cappell ; The Swiss confederates ; Death of Zuinglius ; His 
monument; Ride to Basle; Dwellings; A new conducteur ; 
Brugg ; Cradle of the Hapsburg family ; Baths of Schintznach ; 
Abbey of Konigsfelden; Zimmerman; Banks of the Rhine; 
American and English travellers ; Basle ; Domestique de place ; 
Cathedral ; Tomb of Erasmus ; Room of the Council of Basle-; 
The Library ; Autographs of Luther, Melancthon, &c. ; Hol- 
bein Gallery, 252 

Letter XLI. — Holbein gallery ; Dance of Death not Holbein's ; 
His history; Anecdote; The University of Basle ; Erasmus; 
Euler; Bernouilli ; The arsenal; The Rathhaus; M. Vischer's 
terraced garden ; Walls and towers of Basle ; Terra cotta figures 
of the Dance of Death ; American cotton ascending the Rhine ; 
Railroad to Strasburg ; Pate de foies gras ; French frontier ; 
Vexatious scene ; Passports ; The English ladies ; Low valley 
of the Rhine ; Indian corn and tobacco ; Poor villages ; Walled 
towns ; Manufacturing villages ; Strasburg ; Fortifications ; Hotel 
de France ; The Cathedral, ...... 258 

GERMANY. 

Letter XLII. — Opinions of the cathedral ; Description ; Mass ; 
The great clock ; Military-looking guide ; The host ; The cost 
of the building ; Moonlight view ; Monument to Marshal Saxe ; 
Church of St. Thomas ; A mummy or two found in the church ; 



XVIU CONTENTS. 

Oberlin ; Goethe ; His dwelling ; Invention of printing ; The 
library ; Early printed books ; Anecdote ; Roman remains ; 
Journey to Baden-Baden; Douane at Kehl; Baden-Baden, a 
fashionable German watering-place ; The Hotel de Angleterre ; 
Flowers ; Gaming ; Mons. Benazet ; The servants, - 265 

Letter XLIII. — Peculiarities of a residence at Baden-Baden; 
Hotels ; Dinner ; Cookery ; Courses ; The guests ; An American 
family ; A newspaper at table ; Rentier ; Princes ; Nobleman 
from Greece ; The arrivals in the Gazette ; Advertisement of a 
Sund,ay concert by the Duke's band ; Pleasure grounds ; Con- 
versations Haus ; Shops ; Bohemian women ; The scene ; Cafe ; 
The gambling rooms ; Rouge et noir ; Female gambler ; Rou- 
lette ; Winners and losers ; Sunday the great gambling day ; 
The Duke's subjects not allowed to play, ... 270 

Letter XLIV. — The Romans at Baden-Baden; Remains; The 
hot-springs; Called "hell;" The water scalding hot ; Roman 
masonry ; Fashionable drinking hour ; Grand Duke's new castle; 
The Duke now here ; His appearance ; The Princes of Baden; 
The present family ; Visit to the prisons under the castle ; The 
secret tribunal ; The dungeons ; The solid stone doors ; The 
rack chamber ; The oubliette ; Subterranean passages ; Number 
of annual visiters at Baden, ...... 275 

Letter XLV. — The company at the pump-room ; Conversation ; 
Music ; Humours of the place ; Princes and blacklegs ; Excur- 
sion to the Alte Schloss ; Skirts of the Black Forest ; The old 
castle, a feudal pile ; Saloon of the knights ; The Beacon Tower ; 
Storm ; The repahed saloon ; Restaurant ; Contrasts ; Com- 

• munication with the lower castle and dungeons ; Black mail 
abolished ; Blacklegs ; Moonlight scene ; Family habits of the 
fourteenth century ; Lords and ladies of ancient days ; Reflec- 
tions, 280 

Letter XLVI. — Female beauty ; Ugliness ; Walks and drives ; 
Castle of New Eberstein ; Black Forest, why so called ; The 
Favourite; Margravine Sybilla; Faded furniture; Sybilla's 
boudoir ; Her sixty portraits ; Cabinets ; Gloomy chapel ; Her 
wire scourge ; Hair-shirt and iron cross ; Her statue companions ; 
Church and Convent of Lichtenthal ; Old ruins ; Valley of the 



CONTENTS. XIX 

Mourg; Baden easily reached from America; Fine weather; 
Railroad to Carlsruhe ; Haardt Forest ; Heidelburg ; The 
Neckar ; Students, soldiers, and travellers ; The Alhambra of 
the Rhine ; decorations ; Mannheim ; Mayence ; Scenery, 284 

Letter XL VII. — Mannheim ; History ; Grand Duchess Stephanie 
and court ; The Rhine steamboats ; Restaurant ; Historical 
interest ; Roman legions ; Liberation of Germany ; Merovingian 
monarchs ; Charlemagne ; Various dynasties ; Bonaparte ; The 
Hanse League ; Art of printing ; The Reformation ; Boats and 
merchandise on the Rhine ; The slumber of ages ; Oppenheim ; 
Hotel de I'Europe; Cathedral; Monuments; Crowning of the 
German emperors ; Tower of Drusus ; Pupil of St. Peter ; 
Alexander Severus ; Modern times ; Statue of Guttemberg ; 
His house and printing office ; Roman aqueduct ; Public garden ; 
Frankfort on the Maine; Rothschild's bank; His mother's 
house ; Statue of Ariadne ; Mr. Beckman's gallery ; Public 
cemetery ; Cloisters; Thorwaldsen's bas-reliefs, - - 289 

Letter XL VIII. — Ride to Wiesbaden ; Vineyards ; The River 
Maine ; Railroads ; Beautiful watering-place ; Hotels and lodg- 
ing-houses; Prices; Baths; The Kur-Saal; Cheap dinners; 
Residence of the Ducal family ; The company ; Curious shops ; 
The gambling-rooms ; German women ; Smoking ; American 
trees; Carp pond; Band of music; Balls; Soldiers; Carved 
stags' horns ; Shop of Bohemian glass ; The Boiling Springs ; 
Roman remains ; Votive Roman tablets ; The Heidenmauer ; 
Forts of the Catti; Worship of Mythras; The Duke's hunting- 
lodge ; Reflections, 294 



THE VOYAGE OUT. 



A SUMMER'S JAUNT 

ACROSS THE WATER. 



LETTER I, 



Ship Saranak, in the Delaware, April 1, 1845. 

Introduction — Novel situation — Prospect of visiting Europe — Reason 
for going — Short preparation — The Saranak — Passengers — At anchor 
in the bay — Anecdote— The captain— A man secrjeted— The steam 
tug — First dinner — River navigation — Impediment of the river-r-The 
pilot leaves. 

You ask me to jot down my impressions, and to do this 
without waiting to correct them. You seem to believe that 
most people endeavour to render their letters too ornate, and 
thereby destroy their originality. A few remarks from my 
pen are likely to be at your service, for I already begin to feel 
the evils of idleness, and disposed for a little chat with those 
I have left behind ; I can hardly believe that I am in the cabin 
of one of the noblest packet ships in the world, on my way to 
Europe ! realizing one of the fondest dreams of a life passed 
in a monotonous employment — and obliged to travel with 
other people's eyes. How novel, then, are the feelings, when 
I contemplate myself writing home from sea. Am I about to 



16 THEVOYAGEOUT. 

visit Europe 1 that Europe, whose history, people, institutions, 
and customs, I have been so long reading about, but which no 
one has yet so written as to enable me to see. 

Ordered by the best medical advice of Philadelphia forth- 
with to take a sea-voyage for the benefit both of myself and 
of a son, and learning that this fine ship was not quite full, 
with the assistance of the kindest friends, we were ready in 
just forty-eight hours after the decision, to join the passengers 
of the Saranak by steamboat this morning, — the ship having 
gone down the river. Assembled on board the little Dela- 
ware boat, the Kent, we numbered somew twenty-two or three 
persons, great and small, for the cabin, and there are fifty -three 
in the steerage. Introductions from all sides soon made us 
somewhat acquainted, and before we reached Newcastle, 
where the ship rode at anchor, we had discussed our several 
plans for health, amusement, or instruction, and knew pretty 
well who were to be our companions ; very much pleased we 
are with the prospects of agreeable society ; there are ladies 
and their families, though very few children ; gentlemen? 
middle-aged and young ; to most of us, the sea — the open sea 
— as a dwelling-place, is a novelty. Anticipations of what 
w^e are to find are freely discussed, and sickness is gene- 
rally pronounced one of the great probabilities, if not cala- 
mities. 

The ship is reached, and incidents begin. She is at anchor ; 
the wind is ahead, and it rains a little. A woman and a man 
have been left on board by mistake ; while they were taking 
tender leave in the steerage, the steamer has gone ! Trepi- 
dation is depicted on the countenance of the female : " What 
am I to do, captain ?" in despair. Answer, quickly uttered, 
" Go to Liverpool," — but the good captain relents in a mo- 
ment, "We'll set you ashore somewhere." The consolation 
seems to add bitterness to the pill, instead of gilding it. There 
is nothing to be done but to submit ; like a new president 
when he holds the bread of old incumbents at his slightest 
nod, the very able and intelligent captain, who, at the Phila- 



THEVOYAGEOUT. 17 

delphia wharf we left so lately, was only a common man, is 
now in office^ and supreme, barring the pilot on deck. 

Our most truly comfortable state-rooms, opening into a 
superb cabin, have received our new trunks, and bags, and 
pillows ; our clothes are stowed in good drawers, and we hope 
the anchor will soon be apeak. The state-room is too narrow 
to confine our bounding thoughts ; let us go on deck. 

A poor fellow from the Emerald Isle has been detected se- 
creted on board. I witnessed the interview between the cul- 
prit and our President Turley ; the humblest mien you ever 
saw would fauitly picture the face of our prisoner ; humbled 
to the earth, he would make any confession demanded ; pay- 
ment of twelve dollars would alone suffice, and he is to go 
ashore with those l^ft by accident, than whom he is in a less 
enviable predicament. 

A scene at anchor, to those who would fain be going on 
their way, you may imagine, is dull enough. We have hailed 
the steam-tug Superior, merrily towing boats to the Chesa- 
peake and Delaware Canal ; the captain says he will return 
and take us round the Hook. 

The tug has hitched us on ; we move towards our destina- 
tion. The wind soon does us more service than the steam. 
We actually tow the steamer, and she is dismissed. Dinner ; 
our first, and some fear, our last. The ship lays down under 
a brisk breeze, and some joking as to the ups and downs of life 
pass current. 

The appointments of this fine ship of over eight hundred 
tons are admirable, and the attendance without a fault. Could 
our ancestors have seen our refinements and luxuries, they 
would have thought us effeminate. I only think we are im- 
proving with the benefits which civilization and Christianity 
inevitably produce. 

2d. The big mud-hook, alias anchor, was brought into re- 
quisition last evening at dark, and we all had a remarkably 
good night, as quiet as at home. This delay enables one to 
get acquainted with the ship and its officers, and I am not 

2* 



18 THEVOYAGEOUT. 

sure but that I like this river navigation in a floating' palace. 
At breakfast the ladies returned thanks for the kindness of 
the gentlemen, in deferring to them the time of our meals, 
and they slyly offer to us the decision of the hour when the 
Captain shall be instructed to cast anchor every night ; this 
is received as fair fun, and the Captain takes it as such ; 
though he does not like this delay, he submits gracefully 
when we talk of how far out we might have been had we 
sailed from New York yesterday. The river is an impedi- 
ment, and till our citizens get steam in full play, our foreign 
commerce must dwindle. We are beating down the bay, 
and shall probably be at sea this afternoon. So many people 
now cross the ocean, and so many would be glad to do it, 
perhaps the above rather minute particulars may interest. 

Thirty-six hours on hoard. I must close; the pilot is 
leaving, and I have no time, since the intimation of the fact, 
to add more, than that on arriving at Liverpool, you shall 
have a continuation of my letters, which shall consist of little 
more than just what strikes me at first as differing from our 
customs, things, and people at home. I cannot afford the 
time from sight seeing, to be at all recondite. Adieu. 

. Yours, &,c. 



THEVOYAGEOUT. 19 



LETTER II. 

Ship Saranak, April, 1845. 

Journalizing — Invalids— Remedy — A " horse" — Babes in the wood — 
Irish girl in a consumption — The steerage passengers — Their dis- 
comforts—Contrast — The black cook — Exemption from sickness — 
Going back — Anecdote — Our newspaper at sea — Sunday — Irregular 
hours — Items of a Spring voyage — Berths — Alarm— Anecdotes of 
steerage passengers — Extracts from the Daily Sea Gull — Apples — 
The mate a bird fancier — Want of a propeller — Approach to land — 
The condition of sailors — First light-house — North passage — Rathlin 
Island — Prepare to land in a pilot-boat. 

There is no established mode of writing- from on board 
ship, but that of journalizing- ; when I can catch an incident, 
and impale it, I will resort to pen and ink. 

April 3d. We are on the ocean, with but little wind, but 
the invalid list increases. There are but two of the ladies 
at breakfast, the remaining five being quite indisposed. 
Many of the gentlemen are very sick, and among the num- 
ber is my son and his friend C. Those more fortunate, laugh 
at the invalids ; but it is evidently no joking matter. 

Our cabin companions are agreeable ; there is a total ab- 
sence of all pretension, or the formation of cliques ;- we are 
all on an equality, except in health ; the sick receive kind 
attentions from the captain, stewards, &c. ; soup seems to be 
preferred by those able to eat, and is understood to possess 
the advantage of being easily disengaged. Nobody should 
leave home without a large horse-blanket to throw on the 
deck and lie on. An Englishman amused us to-day by offer- 
ing one of us his horse, as he called it ; it has already been 



20 T H E V O Y A G E O U T. 

very useful to the disabled, who find the air on deck the most 
agreeable, but cannot sit up. Two of the young gentlemen 
have enjoyed its comfort and warmth nearly all day, looking 
much like the babes in the wood, and quite as helpless. 

A very interesting case of a female on board, has some- 
how or other taken deep hold of my feelings. A young 
woman of Irish parentage, is in the steerage, in the last 
stages of consumption. She was taken with the fancy that 
nothing would save her but breathing her native air, and see- 
ing her friends ; and she has sailed without any companion 
or relative, and with too few comforts. Providentially she is 
enjoying " the Heaven of human sympathy." Another young 
girl, of humble parents, has undertaken to nurse and wait on 
her. She cooks the simple sick dishes for her patient, watches 
and consoles her, — comes to the Captain's medicine-chest, and 
has been successful in creating an interest in the cabin, from 
whence we have furnished some cocoa, Roussel's mineral 
water, oranges, &c. The steerage passengers interest me 
greatly. " A great gulf" divides us from them, and they 
look up at our higher deck with feelings in which I fancy I 
detect a wish that they were able to partake of our more 
commodious accommodations ; there is one rich man there, 
worth as much as two or three of us combined ; he goes thus 
for economy, and has his son on board, very sick, and without 
sea-stores suitable for the voyage ! Now, if money can be of 
any service in this world, it may be safely asserted that in no 
way are its results more required than at sea ; in the steer- 
age there is a combination of discomforts requiring strong 
nerves to encounter. 

For instance ; first, it is very gloomy and dark, thereby 
furnishing the strongest contrast to our airy cabin, where the 
doors, painted dead white, afford the most cheerful light re- 
flected from skylights, and a window is in every state-room. 
This confinement with sick, and by habit not over-clean com- 
panions, engenders smells, peculiarly offensive to the delicate 
olfactories of the nauseated. Then the live-stock, bipeds and 



THEVOYAGEOUT. 21 

quadrupeds, are in close proximity, and they do not diminish 
the oiSTence. Attempt to realize all this, in which there is 
much left for the imagination undescribed, and you have a 
picture, in which I am mistaken if you do not sympathize. 
And yet, probably Columbus, William Penn, and many other 
great men, visited our country under circumstances little less 
propitious : the caravel of Columbus was of about the capa- 
city of thirty tons, with a half deck only, if I remember 
aright, and the Saranak measures nearly thirty times as 
much, so that the poor creatures have room to move about ; 
but, they have the mortification added of smelling our good 
dinners, which are cooked by a darkey* and his help, in near 
proximity to their steerage steps. Enough of this now. 

April 4th, A spanking breeze to-day, and propitious for 
our course, but it has completely prostrated most of our 
party. 

Only nine come to dinner, and some of these immediately 
disappear ; my son just about as sick as his physicians hoped 
he would be ; and he is rolled up in the " horse." If a vote 
could be taken I afti assured by several that they would 
gladly go back ! The ladies are very unwell, and the stew- 
ardess is on the list. On comparing notes with the Captain, 
I find myself in the better case of the two. Nota Bene. If 
you should ever go to sea, and should have an investigating 
mind at the time, you will probably arrive at the following 
conclusion : that one of the pleasures, and not the smallest, 
consists in the fact that we talk and think a great deal about 
ourselves ; we and our personal comforts, feelings, prospects, 
and arrangements, are all-important. 

April 5th. The wind has abated, and all hands appear on 
deck much elated with their improved health ; a summer sun 

* This very black man married a whiter wife in England, and took 
her to Philadelphia, where she resides. I am extremely curious to dis- 
cover why it is that the blacks who thus go to England and are there 
received on an equality, do not remain. Is it that they are gregarious? 
The cook can give me no good reason. 

/ 



22 THEVOYAGEOUT. 

and balmy air enables all to take exercise, read, write, and 
study the ship ; several of us are airing our French with two 
agreeable natives of Paris. 

The crowning event of the day is the appearance at dinner 
of a M S. newspaper, edited on board, and read aloud between 
the meats and dessert. It is called " The Daily Sea-gull and 
Mother Carey's Chicken," and shows by what small items we 
can be exceedingly entertained. The effort has been very 
successful. 

We passed a Yankee brig to-day, standing on the same 
course, — and in the distance, several other sails are visible, to 
cheer the lonely expanse. 

All sail set this evening, and the ship making eleven knots, 
or miles per hour. 

April 6th. This is Sunday; there is a fine breeze, with so 
much motion that nearly all are prostrate, and service is ne- 
cessarily omitted ; the Bible is, however, not forgotten, as I 
see several neat portable editions are brought out. We have 
had April showers ; none of the female passengers are visible ; 
sometimes we make twelve knots an hour, but it passes us 
only three on our direct course. The spirits of the party ge- 
nerally below par. The captain says, before turning in, that 
it is the darkest night he has witnessed for ten years. Per- 
fectly free from sea-nausea, and divested of all fear for our 
safety, it has been to me a day of enjoyment and rest. We 
have a great variety of new books, and all are happy to lend 
or exchange. 

Guide-books are in request, and European routes are studied 
with eagerness. An old traveller • has many questions to 
answer. By comparing notes we have acquired much informa- 
tion as to how we are to do and behave, and what sights are 
best worthy of attention. Paris is looked to for enjoyment by 
all. Some few intend making directly for Rome, in order to 
avoid the heat of the summer there, which it is dangerous to 
encounter. We propose to travel leisurely up to London, see 



THEVOYAGEOUT. 23 

its wonders and the curiosities in the vicinity, and act there- 
after as circumstances, health, or whim may dictate. 

We have no regular hours for going to bed ; sleep over- 
takes us during the day, and we sit up sometimes till twelve 
and one o'clock ; a few take such long rests that they are not 
ready for breakfast till lunch-time. 

April 13th. We have had the usual items of a spring 
voyage; a heavy cutting fog, a strong gale with the sun 
shining, and to-day, Sunday, have seen a brig pass, under full 
sail; the waves so high as almost completely to submerge her 
during moments of our combined depressions. So far, the 
passage has been a rough one, says our excellent captain. 
Last evening we had the proper toast of wives and sweet- 
hearts from the married men, and sweethearts and wives from 
the bachelors, over a glass of wine and a huge pound-cake 
from the captain's locker; to-day we had service on deck, per- 
formed by a young clergyman, a passenger in search of 
health ; so you see my first voyage has most of the accompa- 
niments, except ice-islands, the region of which we have now 
left, and fear not their dangers. 

April 14th. The most modern mode of fixing the berths, 
is to place them on the side of the state-room next the cabin, 
so that we hear less of the surging sea as it beats the ship, 
than by the old mode ; this is a very decided improvement, as 
we also escape some motion by being nearer the centre of the 
vessel- 
April 15th. The young Irish girl in a consumption, in the 
steerage, is no better ; her friend whom we had thought so 
disinterested, now requires payment for her services, or wiH 
discontinue her attentions,* and another woman has been 
hired to see that she does not suffer. There is a great exhi- 
bition of selfishness among these poor people. 

* This she afterwards affirmed was not the case. She left the sick 
woman because the others taunted her with wishing to get the clothes 
of the invalid if she died. 



24 THEVOYAGEOUT. 

I paid my usual daily visit to the forecastle, and had some 
additional chat with the steerage passengers. On asking a 
Yorkshireman why he was going back, his reply was, " Why, 
you see, I were a happy man in England, and I were an un- 
happy man in America." Another had been very comforta- 
ble, with plenty of work, but his wife had become home-sick, 
and would go ; their various unwritten stories, and feelings, 
would each make a book, had they a Gait to chronicle every 
individual Lawrie Todd. The biography of the common peo- 
ple is a mine which yet remains to be worked. An American 
lad, going with his Irish father to see the "ould countrie," had 
a letter, to throw on board a barque we passed yesterday ; 
his countenance offers a strong contrast to the lack of intelli- 
gence of his neighbours, whose' minds seem mostly locked up 
in stolidity, which it is difficult to penetrate. 

April 16th. The monotony of the passage has been much 
broken by our newspaper; its success some thought would be 
improved by starting an opposition ; this was done ; and the 
war carried on till good taste advised the discontinuance of 
both, as they were becoming too personal. 

Extracts from the Daily Sea- Gull and Mother Carey's 
Chicken ; published on board the Saranak, at sea. 

A game of nine-pins will be played on Monday morning ; 
those able to stand up will be''allowed to play ; mere sets-up 
excused. 

The Cataract of the Bile may be seen on deck. 

Fall arrangements of the Packets. Tea-cups upsetting, 
and passengers tumbling about. 

Lost. Two hu7idred dollars reward. Several good appe- 
tites have been lost somewhere in the main cabin. If re- 
turned, in good order, within twenty-four hours, the above 
reward will be cheerfully paid. 

The bottle measurer. Half-way. A gentleman assures us 



T H E V O Y A G E O U T. 25 

that we are half-way to England ! He brought two bottles of 
brandy on board, to last the voyage, and one is gone already. 
It is shrewdly suspected that many will be half-seas-over 
without being aware of it. 

The Captain. There is some fear expressed on board that 
the captain is becoming intemperate, as he has been fre- 
quently heard calling to the helmsman for Port. 

New ivorks in the press. A new edition of Silly Man's 
Travels, by the editor of this paper. 

Do not think from the above that we have even one brandy- 
drinker among us; the one who did take a little proved to 
have entirely escaped the general sickness, and was thus the 
envy of others, who took a sort of malicious pleasure in teas- 
ing him. 

We are still rarely favoured with the presence of any of 
the ladies at meals ; the rough passage keeps them constantly 
uncomfortable, and they pick a little chicken in their own 
cabin. 

April 17th. Amused ourselves this morning by assorting 
the letter-bag of the ship, containing 1037 letters, and nume- 
rous newspapers and pamphlets, &c. The mass of the former 
are addressed to Ireland, and evidently from emigrants. A 
few specimens of the directions have been copied by a friend ; 
there is one "to the editor of Punch" — one for "Sir Ro- 
bert Peel, Prime Minister of England," in a very cramped 
hand, doubtless containing advice on the corn-laws. 



Specimens of the Saranak^s Post-Bag. 

For diness Brady of drum Negar in care of Sammule Mc 
fadin Coot Hill county of Cavan Ireland. 

To Widow Conners Foxfork Barusha P. ofRs. Tipperaree. 
Mr. William Hunter Belfast Yiiei oil works. 

3 



26 THEVOYAGEOUT. 

To the care of Mras John Haslet Post master Cumber 
Clady for widow, mary Davy of Stranagahvilly County of 
Derry Ireland. 

Liverpool inglan First court in oliver street. For Samuel 
Cobham ship write. 

On the back of another was, When will the Britishers be 
honest to Irishmen ? Returned from U. S. A. 

To Mr. Michall Smyth coachman to the Earl of Kingston. 
Mitchellstown Ireland Andy O'Brien, with speed. 

To the care of Mr. Jon dark, Cow Bag. Londin derry, 
Ireland. 

For mrs. Porter. 

Miss smith, Ireland. 

The Captain is a good housekeeper, surprising us daily with 
the extent of his supplies; we had, for instance, fresh fried 
oysters on the tea-table to-night. Sea-gulls have hovered 
around us this afternoon in numbers ; the sea as placid as the 
Delaware above Philadelphia, which allows all our twenty- 
one grown passengers to fill our table. Now but 650 miles 
from Cape Clear, and 930 from Liverpool. 

One of our passengers has some barrels of apples for his 
friends in England; but they are decaying so fast, he has 
brought them out, to the great enjoyment of many ; fruit, 
dried or fresh, and good walnut pickles, are craved by nearly 
all. Medicine, the Captain has in abundance, of all the com- 
mon kinds; few need, therefore, be brought. The second 
mate is a trader in birds, squirrels, and sometimes tortoises ; 
he has several gray-squirrels, blue-jays, and a little snow-bird, 
and p, black-bird, which sings on fine days some well-remem- 
bered notes of home ; on sunny mornings they are all brought 
out for an airing, much to the amusement of the children ; 
their proprietor says he expects a pound sterling for each, even 
to the snow-bird, if they live ; he brings back a return for our 
bird fanciers, but loses great numbers. 

April 20th. The prevailing south wind, for a few days 



THEVOYAGEOUT. 27 

past, has driven us north of Cape Clear, and to-day, having 
little or none, the current is setting us to the north of Ireland ; 
we shall probably be compelled to take the north passage, and 
thus possibly obtain a view of the Giants' Causeway, with- 
out-the trouble of a journey. Our ship would now feel the 
benefit of a propeller ; if we had one, we might breakfast in 
Liverpool to-morrow, while a week or more may yet be passed 
within a hundred miles of land ; this annoys some of our com- 
pany, but as my son's health improves daily, I feel very con- 
tented ; the weather of April is rather cold in England ; May 
will be a better period to land. 

From what I see and learn on board, I conclude, that the 
efforts now making to benefit the sailor, have been attended 
with good results ; they feel that they are human beings, and 
not outcasts, and are improved by it; much remains to be 
done. It is to be hoped the association lately commenced 
under favourable auspices at Philadelphia will be sustained ; 
*' Sailors' Homes" have been liked by the poor fellows ; the 
next generation may witness the happiest results from the 
exertions now in progress. Our crew are temperate on board 
from necessity, but will probably spend all their wages the 
first day or two of liberty ; at least the old hands taught in 
the old school will do so. 

April 21st. Becalmed still; at twelve at night we saw 
the light-houses of Eagle Island, exactly nineteen days since 
we parted from those of Cape Henlopen ; when shall we see 
those of Liverpool ] 

April 24th. Still becalmed, beating between the Scotch 
island of Islay , and the peculiar Irish coast around the Giants' 
Causeway, of which we have an imperfect view. The Island 
of Rathlin is most remarkable, as is all this rocky coast. 
Rathlin is a sort of feudal sovereignty, under a Protestant 
clergyman named Gage, who holds it under a curious tenure 
from the Antrim family. It has one of Bruce's ruined castles 
on it. 

April 25th. We continue to beat about the singular light- 



28 THEVOYAGEOUT. 

houses, called the Maidens, on two rocks near the entrance 
of the channel. 

April 26th. Very tired of the ship, and determine, with 
others, to endeavour to leave her and make our way as best 
we can to Glasgow or Belfast. A pilot-boat is hailed, and I 
must pack up. 

Yours, &c. 



EEL AND. 



IRELAND- 31 



LETTER III. 

Belfast, April 26th, 1845. 

Gale and fog — Uncomfortable situation — A pilot is seen — Four of us 
land at Bangor — Irish jaunting car — Ship's letter-bag — Beauty of the 
country — " The heir of Bangor" — First impressions of Ireland — Done- 
gal Arms at Belfast— Set out for the Giant's Causeway— Town ol 
Antrim — Huts of the poor— Bleach greens — Irish bull— Round tower 
— Shane's castle — Lord O'Neill — His property — Lough Neagh — Cole- 
raine — Dunluce Castle — The female guide — Giants* Causeway — 
The rabble of would-be guides — Wet to the skin — The hotel — Em- 
bark to see the caves — Writing a bore to a hurried traveller. 

I CLOSED my last letter on board ship, very tired of an im- 
prisonment, which seemed likely to have a long continuance." 
We were all the night of the 25th tossed about in the mouth 
of the channel, in a gale and fog which defied penetration ; 
rocks of the worst description encircled us as we crossed and 
recrossed between the Irish and Scotch coasts, without making 
a mile of progress. We were all somewhat uneasy at our 
situation, a recurrence of which 'was to be dreaded. The 
morning was fine and clear, and seven passengers united in 
asking Captain Turley to hoist a flag for a pilot, not one of 
which genus we had yet seen in this difficult and dangerous 
channel. After lunch, one made his appearance with three 
assistants, in a small wherry-like boat, with a small sail. We 
bargained with him to take seven of us to Belfast for twenty' 
dollars, and my son and I hastened our baggage to the deck ;; 
the wind blew very hard, fair for Belfast, but ahead for Liver- 
pool ; when it came to descending the ladder to our little 
barge, only four came down ; we pushed ofi^, hoisted our sail,, 



32 IRELAND. 

and shot off like a bird, with three cheers for the Saranak. 
The water came over us and our bag-gage till we felt alarmed 
for our safety ; in an hour we sailed nearly ten miles, and 
being inside Belfast Bay, we requested to be landed at the 
nearest point where a conveyance could be had. 

This proved to be Bangor, county of Down, a poor Irish 
town, without commerce, full of old houses, women and 
children, and crazy-looking shops, "licensed to sell spirits 
and tobacco" or " groceries." We found a cab, in which 
were packed oar heavy and wet trunks and travelling bags, 
and then mounted a real Irish jaunting car ; we had the 
ship's letter-bag to be delivered at the Belfast post-office, and 
set out on our travels. , 

Spring has just strewed the earth with daisies and prim- 
roses, and the furze is in full bloom ; it is used for hedges ; 
has a blossom like the laburnum in colour, or perhaps it more 
resembles botanically the Spanish broom. The whole coun- 
try appeared one perfect garden, carefully drained, and only 
interspersed here and there with a wet boggy field, from 
which state it has been, much of it at least, reclaimed. 
Fields beautifully tilled, green and enclosed by hedges, roads 
more perfect than I had ever seen, country seats such as can- 
not be found in America, or very rarely, beautified the land- 
scape of a rolling country, from the hills of which there are 
enlivening views of the Bay. " The heir of Bangor" owns 
the town and the country surrounding it, and has a fine park 
enclosed by a most substantial stone wall and planted with 
ten thousand beautiful young trees. He is a young unmar- 
ried man, now engaged in erecting a new castle, the old one 
falling about his ears ; extensive green-houses are under way, 
and indeed nothing surprised us more than to see the improve- 
ments every where in progress. The climate near the -sea is 
not favourable to the growth of trees, especially the ever- 
greens, which with the ivy running over walls and olden 
trees, looked sickly ; but the country, though few leaves ex- 



IRELAND. 33 

cept those of the hedges and the horsechesnut were out, was 
eminently green. 

Sitting back to back in our very novel conveyance, we four 
raw North Americans, exhausted, in our fourteen miles ride 
to this fine city, all the epithets expressive of admiration that 
we were masters of ; we were constantly exclaiming "look 
here," and if we took our eyes from one side of the road to 
view the other, we lost something by doing so. The country 
is very densely populated ; we saw few labourers at work, 
the spring duties being over. Our first impressions of Ire- 
land are very favourable ; they are those of voyageurs just 
arrived from the confinement of a ship, viewing for the first 
time a new country, and probably a part peculiarly well cul- 
tivated. 

We delivered our heavy letter-bag at the Post-office, and 
were glad .to get to the shelter of the excellent Donegal 
Arms in Belfast, where new hats, clothes, and a bath, made 
us look like ourselves again. Our two companions proceeded 
at ten at night in a fine steamer for Liverpool. Finding my- 
self within sixty miles of the Giant's Causeway, after a short 
sleep I rose at six and proceeded in the Londonderry coach 
for Coleraine, a distance of fifty miles, and a good point to 
diverge to the Causeway, distant ten miles, past the cele- 
brated ruin of Dunluce Castle. The hills overlooking Bel- 
fast, the property of the Marquis of Donegal, contain a deer 
park, the animals in full view from the road. Cave Hill pre- 
sents points of view which would alone warrant the trip I 
had undertaken. Soon we came to Templepatrick, and the 
castellated house and park of Castle Upton, the property of 
Lord Templeton, an absentee. This mansion, which was 
built in the time of Elizabeth, has been modified by subse- 
quent erections ; it is supposed to stand on the site of a pre- 
ceptory of the Knights Templars ; a crypt and finely groined 
roof is the only part of the original structure existing. The 
grounds are surrounded, as is usual, with a well-constructed 
high stone wall, and the planting, though not of more than 



34 IRELAND. 

thirty or forty years' growth, was highly interesting, and to 
my eyes, novel. 

The town of Antrim presented my first view of an Irish 
village, in its truth and originality ; low thatched houses, the 
roofs overgrown with moss, and not offering one pleasing 
aspect of either cleanliness or comfort, with manure heaps in 
front of many, was a very sad beginning. No such buildings 
can be found with us, and I would compare many of them, 
but more especially others in thousands which came in sight 
every few roods beyond, to nothing better than the worst 
negro huts of Virginia. Many bleach greens and good houses 
occupied by bleachers of linen, the staple of this part of Ire- 
land, are in the immediate vicinity. Acres upon acres of the 
greenest grass, are covered with thousands of yards of fine 
linen, indicating a prosperous manufacture. When it is to 
be spread, the linen is carried out in low carts, and " dumped" 
down in heaps. An Irishman said to me, " Do you see those 
white hay cocks of linen V Not the first nor last bull I heard 
to-day. The linen is left out all night and guarded. 

At the end of the main street of Antrim stands the embat- 
tled entrance gateway of Massarene Castle, the property of 
Lord Massarene, another absentee. The front is profusely 
ornamented with carvings of armorial bearings, medallions, 
and other enrichments, above the principal entrance, in the 
style of James I. It was founded in 1609. The grounds are 
handsome, but neglected. A round tower, a short distance 
from the town, is quite perfect; it is ninety-two feet in height. 

The great ornament of this vicinity is the princely demesne 
of Shane's Castle, whose magnificent woods, covering 2000 
acres, skirt the shores of Lough Neagh for more than three 
miles. This is one of the most magnificent parks in Ireland, 
a great portion of it consisting of oak, beech, elm, and larch, 
often of great size. The gardens are kept in perfect order ; 
strangers are admitted to drive through the demesne, coming 
out of an opposite gate, and passing long avenues wide enough 
to turn a carriage and four in. The noble residence which 



IRELAND. 35 

once occupied a commanding" situation, was accidentally 
burned to the ground in 1816, while a party of nobles were at 
dinner; the library, pictures, furniture, all perished. Lord 
O'Neill, childless, and the last of his kingly race, resides in 
a plain mansion, and is fond of seeing visiters ; his fine con- 
servatory overhangs the lake. 

Speaking of his property, this nobleman lately wrote thus : 
" The remnant of the estate consists of about 52,500 Irish 
acres (85,000 English.)" So you may imagine what it once 
was. It was granted in 1683 by Charles 11. to the then 
Countess of Antrim. Within the demesne are said to lie 
more than fifty of the old raths or fortresses, with which this 
part of the country was so thickly covered. 

Lough Neagh is said to be the largest lake in Europe, with 
the exception of Ladoga in Russia, Lake Vener in Sweden, 
and the Lake of Geneva ; and how large, think you, it is ] 
Seventeen miles in length, and ten in breadth ! Utilitarian- 
ism, which comes in from the opposite coast of Scotland, pro- 
poses to reclaim the land submerged, by draining ; after heavy 
rains this lake rises six to nine feet, and inundates large 
estates. A canal connects it with the river Lagan, twenty- 
eight miles distant. 

Arrived at Coleraine, I hired a fresh horse, and dashed off 
in fine style for Dunluce Castle and the Causeway, through 
a broken, stony country, filled with cabins. Throughout the 
ride from Belfast, the women, wherever seen, were barefooted 
in the roads and streets, though the day was damp and cold. 
They say they prefer it ! but we find them change their 
minds when arrived among us, and the half dollars become 
more plenty. 

Dunluce Castle, situated on one of the great headlands 
facing the North Sea, is truly an interesting spot ; though a 
ruin, it tells its own story so easily, that you read the habits 
of olden times without a guide. The date of most of the 
castles in this country is known; the Irish began to erect 
defences of this description in the eleventh or twelfth centu- 



36 IRELAND. 

lies, but this is older, and no record tells of its birth. It is 
perched upon a lofty rock, separated from the main land by a 
chasm of about thirty feet in breadth, across which the only 
means of access is on the top of a narrow wall, three feet 
wide ; over this the visiter walks or is pulled by the old guide, 
or his wife, and a lady is said lately to have rode her horse 
over, to gain a Die Vernon celebrity; another bet was won 
by a jockey getting a blind horse to do the same feat. This 
access being the only one, its approach is narrowed gradually 
down from the outworks on the main, till it becomes a mere 
alley of high walls, which could be contested by a single 
arm. The buildings on the main are large, and were used 
for horsemen, servants, and retainers ; all wood is gone, but 
you can trace the height of the small rooms, and see the 
chimney-places of the dwelling part ; this is also all castel- 
lated, and built of mortar of the same extraordinary consis- 
tency, as hard as the stone itself, resisting the action of the 
sea-air and spray, which have been flying over it for centuries. 

A banshee of course inhabits the best room left, and her 
presence is ascertained to be nightly, when she sweeps the 
stone floor with the greatest care ; more intelligent observers 
attribute this to the wind whistling through a loop-hole. The 
neighbours, a few years since, stole the casings of the doors 
and windows, but enough is left to show their character ; the 
agent of the estate has established an old man and his wife 
near it, who gain a good living from showing the castle, and 
from their care of numerous grazing cattle. The woman 
attended me, and was constantly saying, " I tell the truth ; it's 
no use telling a lie ; the castle was built fourteen hundred 
years agone ; and that's the truth ; yes, gentlemen." I picked 
a few wild flowers from the floor of the great hall, and caught 
a live snail, of beautiful colours, crawling up the castle wall, 
which treasures are safe in my luggage for . 

The Giant's Causeway is three miles distant, on a headland 
of similar appearance. I passed through the flourishing vil- 
lage of Bushmills, celebrated the world over for its whisky 



IRELAND. 37 

distillery, and came to the Causeway House, an excellent 
hotel on the plateau above .the Causeway. This plateau is 
somewhat like the green space before the boarding-houses at 
Long' Branch, but commands fine reaches of headlands on 
both sides the village, and several country houses built for 
the residence of gentry during the bathing season. In fact, 
this spot promises to become a watering-place ; and when the 
railroads in Ireland now in progress are completed, it will be 
so easy to reach it from England, via Dublin or Belfast, that 
it may be in a few years as much frequented as Niagara, and 
in my humble opinion, as much spoilt thereby. 

How shall I describe the Causeway, or how picture to your 
mind's eye the commotion my arrival occasioned among a 
dozen or two would-be guides ? They were in motion before 
I thought I was visible, escaping like frightened birds from 
numerous clay huts on the sides of the road ahead, each 
anxious to arrive at the gate of the inn, beyond which they 
are not allowed to approach, and each having three or more 
simple boxes filled with the crystals and other productions of 
the place. We whipped our way through them, and were 
kindly received by the hotel-keeper, though in a plight that 
in America would be deplorable, wet nearly all over, through 
five coverings ; this place is famous for such "juicy" days, as 
indeed all the island, though to a less degree. 

Our host procured tlie best guide, Alexander Laverty, and 
v/ith him and an English gentleman whom I joined at lunch, 
we set off to the landing, where we engaged four boatmen, 
expert at a business requiring more than ordinary nerve, to 
pull amidst the roaring waters. We embarked to see first the 
cave. I dare hardly venture on a description of the Cause- 
way, so ably painted by pen and pencil before, but as you 
insist on my writing, I will in my next attempt at least to 
give my impressions of the scene. By the way, do you know 
what a task you imposed on me] Time is more valu- 
able here than money, to me who am in haste ; and to have 

4 



38 IRELAND. 

one's sleeping hours employed in coffee-rooms, pencilling" thus, 
is a more serious business than I expected. 

Yours truly, &c. 



LETTER IV. 

Belfast, April, 1845. 

The Giants' Causeway — The eaves — The low pier — Garrulous guide — 
Crystallization of Basalt — Size of the Causeway — Spanish Armada 
— Pleaskin — Its magnitude — Kohl recommended — Sir Walter Scott 
—Album — Discharge of a guide — Advice to travellers. 

The Giants' Causeway is a great natural curiosity, and yet 
I cannot blame any one for saying they were disappointed at 
their first view. The Causeway itself looks very small in the 
distance, and it is very low compared with what engravings 
have led me to expect. Follow me a few minutes, and you 
will learn why this disappointment is experienced. 

The boatmen row you first to the caves in a headland of 
rock, and you see the smaller one of the few there is 
access to from the land ; it has an opening through the hill, 
which we afterwards viewed. The sea often dashes into it 
so boisterously as to make it impossible to enter, or even ap- 
proach. Dunkerry Cave is one of more magnificent propor- 
tions, and in the calmest weather it requires the expertness 
and practice of the boatmen to effect an entrance in safety. 
The innermost recesses have not been explored, nor v/ould a 
passage through it, with the swell of the sea lifting the boat, 
be desirable. The vault above, the green waters beneath, the 
yawning abyss, the rocks of basalt hanging over the beholder, 
encrusted slightly here and there with copper, combine to 
render it eminently grand. Echo answers to echo, and the 
boatmen relate that, in stormy nights, the inhabitants of 



IRELAND. 39 

houses far inland, are often kept awake by the noise of waters 
in subterranean caverns. 

Leaving- this place, you are rowed to the Causeway itself; 
you land as on a low pier, and are told to look around ; a vast 
work seems to have been begun, and the materials left scat- 
tered up and down as the workmen had been engaged at them, 
when the progress of the work was arrested. You walk about 
upon the tops of slippery columns of all shapes, and are shown 
heptagons, sexagons, &c., by your garrulous guide, who ever 
and anon shakes off your beggars as one shakes away the flies 
in America, and then says, "Now, gentlemen, this is the 
giant's arm-chair ; and now, gentlemen, this is the giant's 
spring — whoever sits upon this chair, if he takes two drinks 
of the giant's spring, and thinks of his love, in less than 
a year he will be married ; and, if he be a married man, will 
have an heir to his estate." We made him repeat it several 
times, to see if it was by rote, as every thing else was. The 
spring- water finds its way between the pillars of the Cause- 
way at a spot where it would seem they are most closely 
packed together. An old woman presides at this well, and 
offers a draught of the pure stream, and, if requested, will sea- 
son it with poteen, distilled illicitly in her own cabin — the 
Irishman's mountain-dew. 

There are three platforms of these columns here, which 
may occupy as much space as the central building of Inde- 
pendence Hall and one of the court-houses at Fifth or Sixth 
Streets. Nature rarely works at crystallizing on so large a 
scale ; basalt, it is known, takes the forms here presented 
under great pressure w^hen heated, as this has evidently been ; 
the curiosity is to see the operation from so large a manufac- 
tory, but in reality it is no more curious than the dog-tooth 
spar, which the beggars oflTer in boxes at your side ; the laio 
governing the case is present in each, and quite as remarka- 
ble in the one case as in the other. 

The size of the Giant's Causeway would alone diminish the 
visiter's willingness to think he must be very full of admira- 



40 IRELAND. 

tion, for he has seen prints of great high rocks overlooking 
the sea — but these are in another place, and are no part of the 
Causeway proper. The boatmen now row you past the " chira- 
ney-tops," on the summit of the next headland, so called from 
the tradition that the celebrated Spanish Armada mistook 
them for the towers of Dunluce Castle, and battered one of 
them down ; it now lies at the foot, and the name of Port-na- 
Spagna has been given to the little bay. 

You next come to the Pleaskin, where you see the reason 
for supposing the Causeway had been painted in your mind of 
such a height. This precipice is most striking. It consists 
of sixteen different strata, piled one above the other. A bed 
of irregular prismatic basalt is based upon a stratum of red 
ochre, and at an elevation of two hundred feet stands a mag- 
nificent gallery of basaltic columns, forty-four feet high. Ano- 
ther bed of basalt succeeds, and then a second colonnade of 
longer and more massive columns. Another follows, crowning 
the altitude of four hundred feet above the sea. This spot, 
fringed with incessant foam, adorned with various tints of 
green, gray lichens, and vermilion rocks, is the point which 
a casual visiter carries most vividly in his memory. I think 
Kohl's account, which I read on the voyage, a good one, and 
as it is more particular than mine can pretend to be, I refer 
to it, and to many published accounts in the old Philosophical 
Transactions, &c. In 1814, Sir Walter Scott, when on a 
nautical excursion round the coast of Scotland, sailed over to 
these shores, and has given a fine description of the sea view. 

Fatigued with walking, and more tired of the box-sellers 
and beggars, who hang around your person like musquitoes, 
and who think they have a right in your purse because of the 
giant whose smithy you came to see, or for some other equally 
plausible reason, you are glad to get back to your hotel. 
From the album kept in it for a few months, it is evident that 
most visiters have thought quite as much of their dinners as 
of the Causeway ; the entries in it mostly record a great 
ducking, time of stay, and their satisfaction with the landlord, 



IRELAND. 41 

guide, waiter, and fare, the Causeway not mentioned. A fev/ 
poor attempts at wit disgust you with Irish albums, and you 
turn to the guide Laverty's book, in which visiters recom- 
mend him. One has dismissed him in the regular style always 
required in dismissing a servant, thus: — 

" A. Laverty was in my employment for nearly two hours, 
during which time he conducted himself soberly, honestly, and 
quietly. I discharged him an hour ago, having first paid him 
all wages due — and something over." 

Dublin. 

A piece of advice, given over the head of the guide, with- 
out his being able to read it himself, amused us, as being most 
eminently true. Laverty tells you he has fixed a price, to 
lull suspicion, and he then lets you be cheated by the boatmen 
as a distinct set of necessary assistants, no doubt sharing in 
the spoil. It ran thrns : 

" Never go into a boat without first ascertaining how much 
to pay] Of course some exorbitant demand will be made, but 
never pay more than eight shillings for two hours, and the 
party amounts to six or less — pay this guide three shillings — 
he is a very good one : after all, dear reader, have you not 
been disappointed with the Causeway, as I have been?" 

G. G. of Dominica, W. I. 

The names of several Americans are in the album ; three 
or four from Kentucky were lately added. 

Yours, &c. 



4* 



42 IRELAND. 



LETTER V. 



April, 1845. 



Sir K. Mf-NaiJghten's Casile— The Causevvay liille visiied — Return to 
Belfast — Find my companions of the ship — Ride to Dnhlin — Appear- 
ance of the country — Absentees— Sir Henry Poitinger — Mr. Ma- 
cready — Police — Homeliner-s of liie people — Dunkald — A inarket- 
day — Paddy and his pig — Fashions — Donkey-carts — Neddy — Sweep- 
ing up manure — Railroad to Dublin — Regulations^Cars — Efficient 
police at stations, &c. — Rain. 

Sir Edward McNaughten has a castle very near the 
Giant's Causeway, and this desolate-looking coast may pro- 
bably be a very good neighbourhood in summer, but in winter 
it is awfully cold and stormy. Forty members of noblemen's 
families have been in the hotel at one time, but I conclude, 
from what I see and hear, that the spot is not so much visited 
as Niagara was before the railroads were thought of. Five 
hundred may be the actual number in a season. This is not 
large, and especially when we recollect that Laverty assured 
us it was " the most picturesquest object in Ireland." 

I retraced my route to Belfast with as much speed as pos- 
sible, anticipating that our ship might have to put in there 
during the gales which continued to prevail ; I was not dis- 
appointed ,• — the ship ivas at anchor, and all our cabin passen- 
gers but one v/ere at the Donegal Arms. Finding it in vain to 
sail against the easters that had so long prevailed, the captain, 
after giving his passengers another good dose of sea sickness 
in a fog and gale of greater severity than before we left him, 
was driven by stress of weather to this resort. A steam-tug 
was procured, their luggage taken to the Custom House, 



IRELAND. 43 

which I had entirely escaped, and they were delayed a day 
longer still, while 1 was ready to proceed to Dublin ; first 
visiting the principal objects of interest in Belfast ; among 
these no one should omit the Botanical Garden, which is in 
the most beautiful order. 

The ride from Belfast to Dublin is one of great interest, 
exhibiting in strong colours the peculiarities of Ireland. 
Much of the way we found a remarkably fine, cultivated 
country, in parts, a perfect garden; near Newry every pos- 
sible spot was under tillage. There are many large pro- 
prietors, mostly absentees, but there are several benefactors 
of the poor, who remain at home and distribute their money 
in improvements; — fencing and planting on an immense 
scale. Indeed there are evidences, in a vast many places, of 
attention in these respects, leaving an impression of an 
advance of prosperity in this section of Ireland, highly 
encouraging to Irishmen who love their green island. If the 
incubus of a hereditary land-ownership were broken down, a 
large standing array dismissed, good and wholesome laws 
enacted, the people instructed in the arts, and given even a 
common education, this fine country might be the garden of 
the earth. 

I forgot to mention that at our hotel in Belfast we had for 
a fellow-lodger. Sir Henry Pottinger, of Chinese treaty me- 
mory. He came over from Glasgow the day of our arrival, 
nearly sick with the feasting the Scots have been giving 
him, and about to enter again upon a similar course in Ire- 
land. Belfast is his native town, and his arrival created no 
little excitement. He was to receive the compliment of a 
public dinner in a Cew days. In appearance he is a modest, 
plain man. Another distinguished man, better known in 
America, was also there, announced to perform a round of 
characters before the " nobility, gentry, and garrison;" no less 
a personage than Mr. Macready, whose Hamlet, Werner, 
and so on, were posted all over the town. 

The things that strike us most, as strangers, are the effi- 



44 IRELAND. 

cient police every where, the jaunting* cars, the bare feet, the 
tont ensemble of the buildings, and the homeliness, generally, 
of the people ; add to this the presence of a standing army? 
the red coats seen at the towns, in the roads, &c., and you 
will imagine us in a country exciting novel sensations. We 
began well, with Ireland first, and shall go on through higher 
and higher grades. 



Dublin, May. 1845. 

Too much fatigued by a long stroll to attempt the night 
coach for the south, I have a part of an evening to devote to 
my correspondents, and vvill continue my epistle from this 
beautiful city. One scene on our road fron) the north escaped 
me in the last letter: it was a market-day at the considera- 
ble town of Dunkald, a place of some commerce The main 
street through which we drove was occupied for more than a 
quarter of a mile by hundreds of town and country people 
exchanging their little wealth. Here stood Paddy in humble 
garb, holding for sale a three months' pig in his arms, as we 
liold a baby, and coaxing it not to cry ; next to him a mer- 
chant with bedsteads all put up complete, made of very rough 
materials, for five shillings; coarse wooden-ware seemed to 
have a brisk sale; it was raining, and the ladies walked 
home with their small tubs inverted over their heads to save 
the hoods of their quite smart blue cloaks and their white 
caps, which garb is eminently fashionable; nine out of ten of 
the more respectable have this outfit, while the men sported 
coats of one uniform gray, cut in the style of Addison's day 
in England; — with smallclothes of the same period; their 
appearance was to our eyes singular and grotesque. There 
were pigs of all sizes and ages, scanned and bargained for 
with as much care as if they were horses at fifty pounds 
each. Tin-ware, bread, groceries, vegetables, especially 
young cabbage-plants, tied up in circles containing a dozen. 



IRELAND. 45 

and in short, every conceivable commodity adapted to the 
middle and poorer classes. 

A great portion of this merchandise was brought to market 
in donkey-carts, geared not with modern leather, but ancient, 
which snapped and broke as the little Neddy jumped on hear- 
ing the shrill horn of our post-guard. The people of Ireland 
buy these little animals, only larger than a good sheep, 
sometimes as cheap as a dollar, and call them " the poor 
man's charger !" They serve a good purpose ; we saw them 
first in Belfast, where they draw marketing, and appear to 
be under complete control. A number of women in old 
clothes, without bonnet or shoe, were constantly employed 
in the middle of the street with a broom sweeping the manure 
and depositing it in baskets or donkey-carts, and by this 
means they live. 

Between the last-named city and Dublin a railroad has 
been commenced, and is finished about twenty-two miles at 
each end; great difficulties have occurred in determining 
the situation for the remainder of the route, rival interests 
wishing it to approach their property respectively. The bill 
is before Parliament now. The regulations on these few 
miles are in some respects admirable: among these is the 
mode of checking the ticket-seller. Each ticket is printed 
on thin coloured paper, and stamped daily with the date of 
the month ; it is cut from a book as sold, always leaving a 
margin with a corresponding number, so that the cashier who 
stamped it knows precisely how many are to be accounted 
for. At every station and crossing, a policeman, well dressed 
and badged, stands ready to prevent animals or bipeds tres- 
passing on the road, incommoding passengers, or creating 
any confusion. They are civil, and direct the traveller in 
any difficulty. The coaches are admirable, divided into three 
classes, the second being as comfortable as those between 
New York and our city, and a vast deal cleaner ; the third 
are by no means uncomfortable, except when it rains, as it 
does daily ! 

Yours, etc. 



46 IRELAND. 



LETTER VI. 



Dublin, May, 1845. 

Atmospheric railway — Prince Albert's prize beef— The Queen's share 
— A present — Lilirary of Dublin University — Its apf>earance and con- 
tents — The students — Ignorance respecting America — Failure of the 
U. S. Bank not heard of— A situation under Van Buren — Buffalo 
sporting at Philadelphia — Good humour of the people — An Irish 
wag— Beggars — How treated — War witii America — Ireland friendly 
— Relieving guard at the castle— Good music — Drum major — Idlers 
— The 44tb regiment— the 32d. 

One of the first places to which my friends took me on 
arriving- at Dublin, was the Atmospheric Railway, connecting 
with the Kingston ; its commencement is seven miles from 
our Imperial Hotel in the great thoroughfare of Sack villa 
Street. Its terminus is at Dalkey, a distance of one mile and 
three-quarters, which we ran in the unusually slow time of 
four minutes : the route has been frequently traversed in one 
minute and three-quarters, or sixty miles an hour, on an as- 
cending grade, and with a weight attached of seventy tons. 
You know the mode of exhausting the pipe by a steam-en- 
gine of one hundred horse power, and inserting a piston in 
a cylinder in the centre of the track ; the opening in the 
fifteen-inch tube is immediately closed by a wheel running 
over plates of iron, about five inches long, and replacing them 
in a slight bed of luting, such as is employed to grease cart- 
wheels or of that consistence, but by no means in such quan- 



IRELAND. 47 

tity or so fluid as I had imagined from the descriptions. We 
ascended a grade, recollect, of seventy-six feet, in less than 
two miles. It is considered here a successful invention and 
likely to be generally introduced. A committee of Parlia- 
ment reported favourably on it last week. The Americans 
must take up and improve this plan. No railroad should be 
now commenced in the United States without ascertaining 
fully the benefits and economy of this important invention. 
Various charters for this improved mode have been granted 
in England, and many routes are now in progress, with pros- 
pects of complete success. 

Dublin has at this moment some beef on sale which is ex- 
citing great interest : it is the enormously fat flesh of Prince 
Albert's two prize oxen, which have just competed with the 
Irish at their cattle-show and carried off the honours. They 
were each sold for seventy guineas, and the purchaser, one 
of the wealthiest men of Ireland, is retailing the best pieces 
at fifty-five cents the pound. The Queen ordered the cut 
called the " baron ;" my friend asked him if he was going to 
charge her Majesty 1 " Surely I will indeed." " Well, now 
I'll tell you what," says my companion, " you present the 
beef to the Queen, and I'll give you thirty pounds sterling 
for whatever she returns you." The idea seemed novel to 
the Irishman, and the compensation in esse, has, I am per- 
suaded, induced him to send it " free gratis for nothing," ex- 
cept expectations, which will, they say, consist of a valuable 
return. I felt surprised that the " royal consort" should take 
not only the prize but the money for the sale, but subse- 
quently ascertained he presented the proceeds to the Dublin 
Agricultural Society. The market accommodations here are 
not convenient. 

Having gratified the first friend to whom I delivered a let- 
ter by seeing the beef and the railroad, I made my way in 
search of my own hobby, a fine library. This I found at the 
Dublin University, where I was most kindly shown the col- 
lected treasures of this rich literary institutio;a. The Uni- 



48 IRELAND. 

versity is in the heart of the city, but in itself is, for all pur- 
poses of free circulation of air, in the country, standing in a 
" Green" of thirty acres. The buildings are very handsome 
and substantial. Founded by Henry Ussher, Archbishop of 
Armagh, by Royal Charter from Queen Elizabeth, in 1591, 
it has been from time to time richly endowed. In the reign 
of James I. a number of livings were forfeited to the crown 
by the rebellion of O'Neil, seventeen of which were bestowed 
upon Trinity College, and it now numbers twenty-one in its 
gift, and returns a member of Parliament. 

There are three spacious quadrangles ; the grand front is 
three hundred feet in length and of the Corinthian order. 
The second is the Library square, two hundred and sixty-five 
feet long, by two hundred arid fourteen broad ; the library 
occupies the entire fourth side. It was first opened for the 
reception of the books in 1731, exactly the period when the 
Philadelphia Library was founded. At the head of the stairs 
the Library is entered by large folding-doors, and the first 
view is particularly striking. 

Between the windows are lofty oak cases at right angles 
to the walls, on both sides of which the books rest on well- 
filled shelves; the fronts of these cases are terminated by 
fluted Corinthian pillars of carved oak, connected at the top 
by a broad cornice, surmounted by a balustrade, also of carved 
oak, forming the front of a gallery which is continued quite 
round the room. In front of the book-cases are pedestals 
with beautiful white marble busts of ancient and modern phi- 
losophers, historians, and poets. A second apartment is be- 
yond, containing the twenty thousand volumes of the Fagel 
family of Holland ; removed to London in 1794, upon the in- 
vasion of that country by the French, and purchased by the 
University for 40,000 dollars. 

The illuminated manuscripts of this Library, if not numer- 
ous, are very ancient ; one of the most valued was found in 
a bog enclosed in a copper case of curious workmanship em- 
bellished withi precious stones; it is one of the Gospels. 



IRELAND. 49 

The books are rare and valuable, many, very many of the one 
hundred and thirty thousand such as we have only heard of 
in iVmerica. The rooms are open daily from eight to two, 
for the use of students and members of the University. Some 
recent thefts by a student or two, have obliged the regulation 
to be enforced by which no youth is allowed to enter the 
recesses. As I looked out of a window on the park, some of 
the boys were very actively employed at cricket, while others 
were sauntering about the very green grass in dresses many 
of them much the worse for v/ear. I shall not detain you 
with details of refectory and hall. 

I have mixed pretty freely with the classes of natives of 
the Emerald Isle in whom I might fairly expect an average, 
at least, of intelligence ; on very many points, they are pos- 
sessed of an amount of information creditable to their coun- 
try ; but I was scarcely prepared to find them ignorant of 
some of our prominent topics. At a dinner-party, for in- 
stance, not one of the gentlemen knew of the failure of our 
United States Bank ; it had made no impression on them if 
they had read of it, because Ireland has little money to lend ; 
the capital is in the sister isle. On top of a stage-coach a 
young gentleman informed us, very gravely, that he was 
going to America, where a friend had promised to get him a 
place under Van Buren ! Another asked me whether there 
was good buffalo-sporting about Philadelphia ! and a gentle- 
man of the bar in Belfast inquired if there was any large 
city with us but New York ! 

The good humour of the poor is a pleasing feature. A 
wag of the real Irish blood, in a rail-car, called every body he 
saw to him, and cracked a joke with inimitable fun : to the 
first he saw on halting, " I say, ugly fellow, what's your 
name 1" Here he failed, for the reply was out before he had 
done. — " The ugliest name, your honour, ever you lieer'd." 
— " Well ! what is it ]" — " Oh ! sure I mostly disremember 
it !" The second hit caused the laugh to be on our side. 
" Buy some fine oranges, yer honour ?" — " Are they goodi" 



50 IRELAND. 

— " Yes, yer honour.'' — " That's right, my good fellow, al- 
ways keep the best and you'll command the lop of the mar- 
ket !" The discomfited vender laughed, and was about to de- 
part, when the wag relented and made a purchase. 

A beggar, one of the many who beset us on stopping at 
Drogheda near Dublin, beseeched the handsome gentleman 
in goold spectacles, and the beautiful lady with such blue 
eyes, to pity her poverty. When she found we made no an- 
swer, " Heck !" she cried, " I'm wasting all me wind and 
getting nothing to take its place !" and walked off to another 
window. The respectable part of the community never look 
at or answer an appeal from a beggar ; the moment they get 
you to answer, it's all over, and a coin only will drive them 
away ; it is a great comfort on such occasions when the car- 
riage or car moves you beyond earshot. We saw very few 
beggars from the Causeway to Drogheda ; there they made 
amends by a powerful array, but they all looked smiling, and 
seemed to think it was a joke, to judge from faces. The 
North, where we have been, has a preponderance of Pro- 
testants and Scotch ; here, and at the south, the reverse is 
the case, and beggary increases. 

The last news from the States looks a little threatening, 
say the British papers ; I have not read the Parliamentary 
debate in full, but a war with America is a topic which is 
freely discussed, and many do not hesitate to say that Ireland, 
or rather Irishmen, would join us. But first, the red-rcoats 
must be dismissed, before the Irish can well raise a hundred 
muskets. 

The relieving guard at the Castle daily at eleven o'clock 
exhibits the precision and neatness of the British drill. Be- 
fore the above hour has fairly done striking, little squads of 
soldiers assemble in the open court before the Lord-Lieute- 
nant's door, with a fine band of thirty musicians, who play the 
overtures from the operas. 

When the whole guard is assembled for the relief of those 
on different stations, they go through some trifling evolutions, 



IRELAND. 51 

and disperse, along with the ragged boys, and about a thou- 
sand idlers, strangers like ourselves, or loungers with no oc- 
cupation, and the aflair is over. The 44th, the celebrated 
regiment lately returned from Affghanistan, with thirteen 
men out of nine hundred who went out, has been recruited, 
and is now quartered here ; the few survivors of this band of 
soldiers receive great attention, and marked interest attends 
their parades. The 3"2d, too, is popular with the crowd ; a 
suit of colours was presented to them a few days since with 
great ceremony, and, in the evening, they gave a grand ball 
to the " nobility and gentry." There would seem to be an 
intentional parade-policy on the part of the government to 
awe the people of Ireland with the show of power. A colli- 
sion is dreaded by all of both sides, and is believed by many 
some time to be inevitable. 



LETTER VII. 

« 

Clonmel, Ireland, May, 1845. 

Pleasure of travel — Set out for the south of Ireland — Crying and laugh- 
ing climate — Appearance of the country — Watering-pol — The land- 
scape — Park — Deer — Ivy — The passengers — Information — No way- 
passengers — Mayday — System — The guard and coachman — Biauconi 
— Kilkenny — Duke of Ormond — His castle — His marriage — Parties — 
The beggars — Erroneous opinions of Ireland — Want of employment 
— Wages — Servants — Clonmel — Gas in Tipperary — Pig market — The 
family estate — Flouring mills — Domesticated at Clonmel — Security 
of the people — Gentry — Dinner — Gardens. 

A VAST portion of this country is so highly cultivated, and 
the stage-coach routes are so good, that it is a pleasure to 
travel, notwithstanding the crying climate. I left Dublin for 
Kilkenny, intending to return and make further explorations 
among its ancient institutions, and, therefore, went off with 
only a carpet bag, horse blanket for the lower limbs, overcoat, 



6^ 



IRELAND. 



and umbrella, the morning' as fine as could be ; a cloud rolled 
over us in half an hour, and down came a pitiless storm, ac- 
companied by a high wind, dashing the rain-drops into my 
face with great force ; there were on the top of the coach a 
well-dressed woman, and another flauntingly decked in silk. 
I made great ureparations to receive the storm, and expfected 
the others to be quite alarmed — my tucking up excited no at- 
tention ; the ladies quietly drew up their hoods — no remark 
passed — the driver did not seem to be aware of a change, but 
dashed on at his regular pace. In five minutes we were in a 
clear sunshine again, and thus we coached all day, amidst a 
country cultivated in every part, and in the most beautiful 
manner. Cut down all the trees in all Chester county, divide 
the hill and valley into small fields ; fence them with stone 
walls, hillocks of earth, or thorn, as you fancy ; dig it ail with 
a spade ; let the sun shine and the rain descend alternately 
five minutes apiece, for a month in spring- ; then ascend a 
hill and survey your garden; you will have just such views 
as I have enjoyed all day. This raining puts one in the place 
of a flower-bed, over which a florist delights to hold his wa- 
tering-pot. 

Intersperse the round towers at rare intervals, a low old 
abbey, in ruins, and covered with the last growths of the 
ivy, ambitiously rising at the peak of the gable, and entering 
the stone windows ; put a gradually rising hill on one side, 
cultivated to the top, but in deep shadow from a cloud, rain- 
ing from one portion of its circumference ; — on the other hill 
let a fine May sun be shining with all its riant effects — a little 
further on, turn a slight corner of the foot of the hill ; — on one 
side you have instantly a high stone wall, built half a century 
ago, and brown with age wherever you can see it, for it is 
covered with ancient and most luxuriant ivy for half a mile 
or more ; paint in a back-ground, viewed through trees of va- 
rious ages, a large mansion, in the style of a castle, but indis- 
tinctly seen ; an entrance lodge of exquisite taste, (this not 
always the case,) surrounded with old evergreens of little 



IRELAND. 53 

heig'ht ; as you whirl past all this, don't forget the other side 
of the road — it is a deer park of five hundred acres — there is 
a herd of five hundred, and the owner has thousands in it ! 
besides those in the neighbourhood of the house. Yonder you 
think you see a dozen young fawns, but the guard of the 
coach assures you they are hares. 

Such are, as nearly as I can paint, the landscapes of to-day. 
The belts of trees inside the walls of the parks are sometimes 
the width of one of our squares, and half of the trees at least 
have ivy growing to their tops ; their old coats are covered, 
where visible, with moss ; though they have not attained the 
size of some of our monarchs of the forest, they look as if they 
were older, and certainly they are occasionally very vene- 
rable. 

As to the deer, for whose pleasure so large a park is pro- 
vided, they are smaller than our noble rangers of the woods, 
and a little more picturesque than a flock of sheep. Those in 
Phcenix Park, Dublin, the first f had approached very near, 
were quite small, and had a mangy, goaty look ; probably they 

are not as well cared for as Col. 's are ; they were fat, 

of various colours, from white to fawn, and minded our coach, 
as it flew by the top of the wall, no more than sheep would. 

The people who ride on the tops of coaches here do so for 
economy, and are not the best qualified by education to give 
correct information. I depend on them for little more than 
for names ; having established a good understanding with the 
guard by talking about America, where he is sure to have 
relations, I ride inside awhile, and gather what knowledge of 
the country is to be found there ; it differs entirely from that 
above, in its kind, and is occasionally accurate. The travel- 
lers on this route seem to be all on the move from necessity ; 
they are booked on for a hundred miles at a stretch, rarely 
descend to the ground when we stop to change, and no way- 
passengers have been taken up the whole distance. The 
arrival by sound of horn at an old town, with narrow streets, 
is greeted by hosts of boys and youths, as in old times on the 

5* 



54 IRELAND. 

frontiers of American civilization ; this is more the case now, 
perhaps, because the horses are all decked out with flowers 
and ribands for May-day, as is usual throughout the kingdom. 

It is a cold May, but flowers, such as tulips, have been 
pressed upon us in small bunches for sale, and, when all have 
refused to pay, have been thrown at us, " because it is May." 
Bianconi, known to all travellers in Ireland, is very neat in 
his arrangements on this route. The English system of mail 
coaches, nearly destroyed there by rail-roads, is here presented 
to my view in its perfection ; it is no wonder that all our for- 
mer tourists have spoken of it in terms of admiration. 

The perfect system arrived at is admirable; the guard 
knows his place and his duty-r-he opens the door, assists pas- 
sengers to alight, and takes care of the luggage ; the driver 
has nothing to do but nod to the lasses, answer my questions, 
and drive ; he often does not descend from his elevation, when 
horses are changed with a speed and rapidity quite remarka- 
ble : and all this is "away in Ireland," near the borders of 
Tipperary, too, that wild land of savage man as you read in 
books. 

At Kilkenny, where I stopped, is the magnificent newly 
improved castle of the Duke of Ormond. The guard talks 
much of the good hotel, " the Club," where the grand Hunting 
Association assembles from great distances. 

The castle of the Duke of Ormond is on a little run, (here 
called a river, but very little wider than the front of a house,) 
and commands the old town of Kilkenny. On its ancient 
walls the late Duke built a trae Gothic Castle, of great size 
and beauty ; it has fine old trees on one side, but the interior 
is the object of attraction ; the picture-gallery being one of 
the best in Ireland. The present Duke, only twenty-six 
years of age, was lately married. On this occasion he gave 
a series of grand parties, at the castle ; the first to the no- 
bility and gentry, the second to the middle classes, the third 
to his tenantry ; a fourth was given by the housekeeper, so 
that the whole populous vicinity had a treat; he is very 



IRELAND. 55 

popular in the neighbourhood, a good landlord, in the opinion 
of his tenants, and mixes freely with the people; but he 
spends much of his time and money in London. Beggars in- 
numerable are crowding round us to ask for a penny. I have 
put to all these all kinds of questions; the most frequent from 
travellers is, "Why don't you go to the poor-house?" This 
they get over as well as they can To-day I asked them to 
give me a penny ! One of a group instantly pulled out one, 
and said, " That's all I've got in the world and a baby to feed, 
but if yer honour is in want, you shall have it," and she pre- 
tended to pass it into my hand ; the whole group had a hearty 
laugh, and all joined in imploring a sixpence " to divide 
among them, for the blessing of God." Further on the west- 
ern coast there is a poorer population ; here there are strong 
evidences of wealth surrounded by poverty. 

The most erroneous opinions about Ireland prevail in Ame- 
rica; { had believed that much of its surface was untilJed, 
whereas, every nook which fell under my observation bears 
its produce for man; the majority are poor; they are, how- 
ever, in the midst of plenty ; if manufactories were introduced, 
to keep in the island the wages paid to England for goods, and 
the people were set to steady employment, there would seem 
to be no impediments to prosperity, for her resources would 
then be great. The wages of labourers hereabouts are very 
low in the estimation of an American, a shilling a day, for a 
labourer, and when steady employment is guaranteed, less* 
A contractor for railroads assures me he paid twenty cents a 
day in the grazing districts. A man-servant can be hired by 
the year for fifty dollar.s, but then his knowledge of the meta- 
physics of American house-keeping is very limited ; he pro- 
bably considers himself very learned if he can say "yes, sir," 
and wait on table ; as for cleaning boots, carrying a basket to 
market, driving the horse, washing the pavement, and waiting 
on " the mistress" besides, he would scorn it, and if he did 

* In Kerry, sixpence a day in summer, and nothing in winter. — ^ym. 
HoiviU. 



56 IRELAND. 

not scorn it, he would never learn to do the work of a black, 
unless he was caught very young- indeed. As we procure 
our supply from Ireland, the time for having good servants in 
the United States will, I fear, never come ; we must, there- 
fore, simplify our habits, and wait on ourselves. 

Clonrael is a large town, having twenty thousand inhabi- 
tants, on the river Suir, full of queer old houses and people, 
but prosperous because of the presence of flouring mills of 
great capacity. The town is lighted by gas — think of that 
in America — an Irish town in Tipperary lighted with gas. 
When I arrived it was pig-market day ; such men and women 
as you only see in the lowest employments in Philadelphia, 
are driving- the pig to the large- mall, where he is to be sold 
for ready money, to pay the rent. The wife is not willing to 
trust her lord alone with so important a commission; she 
therefore accompanies him with a stick to drive, while Paddy 
holds on to the hind leg, by a wisp of straw, to prevent the 
family estate from running away. Prices just now are good ; 
the pig-market is therefore crowded, but it would require a 
Hogarth to describe it. The dresses of the people are curious 
and antique; 1 begin to believe the story told by. somebody 
before, that the old clothes that w^on't sell in London, are all 
shipped off here, where they serve two or three, generations 
of pig-feeders. There are many capitalists in Clonmel, who 
purchase grain and cattle for export, and who sometimes 
make large profits. The flouring mills are as large as most 
in America; but as far as my travels have extended, they are 
the only ones I have seen since leaving Belfast, the grain 
being generally exported. 

Having been domesticated at the house of a gentleman of 
family and fortune, in the county of Tipperary, I have learned 
a little of the fashions and ways of the people. I was not 
prepared to learn the fact that in this lawless country, as all 
England pronounces it, a private gentleman never takes his 
large quantity of silver for security to his safe, at night, nor 
removes it from his sideboard. He has in use five, thousand 



IRELAND. 57 

dollars' worth of plate, which is always at hand in the spa- 
cious dining-room. He never fastens his back gate, while his 
exquisitely beautiful grounds are particularly easy of access. 
The Tipperary boys are worst at times of election, and they 
do shoot a man sometimes, when he crosses the path of their 
interest ; a traveller, and an inoffensive rich or poor resident, 
are just as safe as in any part of America. 

The style and comfort of the higher class of gentry here, 
is very handsome and agreeable ; every household department 
is perfectly filled by servants who know their separate duties, 
and perform them well. The gardener's son, in the morn- 
ing, goes over the grass-plot and cuts out the weeds, depo- 
siting them in his little basket, for they are very few. The 
hostler has his department as neat as a parlour, and is, as I 
inspect the harness, employed in rooting out a little grass 
just sprung up between the stones. The young ladies and 
gentlemen, in morning dishabille when I arrive, are puncti- 
liously dressed for the important dinner at six. The neatness 
of the gardens, surrounded with high evergreen shrubs, such 
as will not bear our cold winters, forms a feature, one look 
at which would compepsate you for a voyage across the 
Atlantic. 

I have now seen a very large surface of Ireland, from the 
north to the south, and shall retrace my steps to Dublin by a 
different route. 

; Yours truly, &c. 



'ii^-^ 



59 IRELAND. 



LETTER VII I. 

Cashell, Ireland, May, 1845. 

A traveller's experience — Servants— Brogue — Siraw for mats — Old 
hotel — Description — Curtains for flags — Furniture — Moss and grass — 
Stage-coach breakfast — Antiquity — Dogs — Donkeys — Donkey cart 
and lady passenger — A gentleman's residence — Dinner — Conversa- 
tion — Manners — Railroad mania — The lines sanctioned — Nearest 
route to America — Hospitality to Americans — Start for Cashell — The 
car — Bianconi — Rock of Cashell — Round tower and caslle — Anti- 
quity must be seen to be appreciated — Ruins of monastic establish- 
ments. 

A TRAVELLER gets by degrees accustomed to the ways and 
appearances of a country, till he loses those first impressions 
which struck him as so novel and different from what he has 
been used to. I detected in Dublin the different manners of 
the servants, who always repeat tJie catchword of your ques- 
tion or order: "the coach is it?" "Sackville Street?" "the 
post office 1" as you inquire for each of these ; the brogue, 
too, is strong, and a little offensive to the ear, — but what 
sounds disrespectful, is not so meant. 

In Tipperary all this becomes worse, but I have got a little 
used to it; not so with the mats at the front doors of the 
stage-houses ; they are nothing more nor less than a bundle 
of wheat straw, strown clean every day or two inside the 
door. This is a useful invention where the streets are muddy 
and passengers not very neat. The very old hotel where I 
lodged last night, is a low double house, where half a dozen 
coaches stop for breakfast ; its doors seem to have been taken 
from various former mansions about a century ago, for there are 



IRELAND. 59 

no two that match ; the locks have been mended, with knobs 
and keys of patterns in fashions of half a century apart, and they 
move with very peculiar motions. The handle of the key of 
my bed- room door was nearly as large as the lock itself, and 
so long was the shaft, that it was a dangerous experiment to 
walk about when the poor tallow candle was extinguished. 
The bed had the usual calico curtain, heavy quilt, and small 
pillow, to which I was glad to add my own, brought from the 
ship, and to replace the covering with a comfortable wadded 
dressing-gown. The red curtains of the common breakfast- 
room had once been drawn through the dirty street during a 
fracas at an election, when this tavern was the castle of some 
candidate opposed to the populace, who filled the rooms with 
paving-stones torn from the streets, and raised the curtains 
aforesaid for a flag ; they are still preserved for ornament ! 

The furniture is of various patterns, but so substantial that 
it will be in use for the next century and a half at least, 
having already served, beyond question, the wants of many 
successive generations. The outside of the house resembles 
nothing you ever saw; moss has planted itself at some points 
of the irregular wall ; a window is boarded up, and the grass 
is growing on the sill here and there ; the floor under the 
entry straw is worn thin with long usage; the dining-room 
carpet has seen successive thousands trample it into tatters; 
the doors of the out-houses are, half of them, oflT their hinges; 
the oddest lean-to's are used for the housekeeper and the 
scullery; and this is the principal stopping-place for the 
admirable mail-coach between Dublin and Cork ; successive 
horns every half hour announced a new arrival for a meal, as 
I sat at an old oak table in one corner and sketched a letter 
to my American friends, with one eye on the street to watch 
the motley groups. 1 have been an observer of the table 
customers, who partake of a substantial traveller's breakfast : 
it consists of ribs of beef roasted the day before, good bread, 
butter, eggs, with tea or coffee, the latter the only inferior 
article on the table, if we except the set-out, which consists 



60 IR.ELAND. 

of tools and plates, made at different ages of the world's his- 
tory. The turret of a church opposite, was built in 1269, as 
is declared over the door of the repaired edifice, and some of 
the things in the dwelling I w^as so busy in gossiping to you 
in, are only a little more modern. This must serve you for 
an hotel-picture of the interior of Ireland. Some people live 
as well as our wealthiest inhabitants, within a stone's throw 
of the scene I have truly but imperfectly painted. 

Dogs are very rarely seen ; they would consume the value 
of enough food to satisfy the simple appetite of the useful 
donkey, contented as he is with furze and the little grass he 
can pick up from the side of the earthen fence. No cattle 
are to be found in the roads any where, without a care- 
taker to see that they do not eat the grass opposite another 
man's homestead. The thatched hovel very frequently in 
Tipperary has no window whatever; the light comes down 
the chimney or through the open door ; the lady-inhabitant 
who can afford the luxury of visiting the neighbouring town 
in a donkey-cart is a happy woman ; if some that 1 have seen 
thus paying morning calls would exhibit on the stage in 
America, they would make as great a sensation as Fanny 
Ellsler. The donkey is extremely diminutive for his species, 
the cart the size of a street hand-barrow ; the driver fills it 
entirely with a sprawling cloak ; but she looks the picture of 
contented independence. 

You are coursing a good turnpiked road, surrounded by 
cultivated acres, where the women are planting potatoes in 
large fields, the latter having the appearance of being dug 
with a spade; there are hovels on each side, when suddenly 
you turn into a handsome gate ; at the entrance is a neat 
lodge with Portugal laurel in the greatest luxuriance ; you 
are whirled into the demesne of a gentleman, whose butler 
welcomes you at the door ; the demesne is perfect in all its 
appointments; the dinner is all that you could desire; the 
state of Ireland, O'Connellism, and the etceteras are discussed 
by gentlemen possessed of the latest debates in Parliament, 



IRELAND. 61 

and O'Connell's last speech at the Repeal Association, held 
every Monday at Conciliation Hall; you hear much of rail- 
roads ; the ladies take wine and join in the conversation with 
more naivete and gusto than with us, and on their retiring, 
the punch is freely circulated ; the gentlemen thaw out, 
cigars are introduced of very strong and very dear quality; 
you join the ladies about ten, hear a little music, shake a cor- 
dial farewell, and are soon in the room with the long-handled 
key. 

This country is alive with projects for railroads. I have 
made particular inquiries respecting them, and find that in 
some instances the stock is already double its first cost. The 
Board of Trade have sanctioned that between Waterford and 
Limerick ; an extension of the Dublin and Cashell to Cork, 
from Cork to Bandon ; from Cork to Fermoy and Youghall. 
Not passed by the Board of Trade, are Dublin to Galway, and 
a branch of the Dublin and Cork to Limerick, from Cork to 
Killarney and Valencia. O'Connell, who has some interests 
at Valencia, wants a road from Dublin to that place, as one 
of the best and nearest routes to embark for America. There 
can be no doubt that the route to America will ultimately be 
thus shortened of the ship and steam navigation. Our own 
case is a striking but not uncommon one : had there been a 
railroad firom the nearest coast of Ireland, we might have 
been in England in twenty or twenty-one days; we were 
really twenty-five or six to Belfast harbour, and then we 
should not have had the troublesome and expensive landing 
there, and trip to Dublin ; in a commercial view this would 
have been most important; to you it would possibly have 
saved my tediousness about the interior of Ireland, for, but 
for the taste of its beauties acquired thus unexpectedly, I 
should have been for some days past in London ; but I am so 
much pleased with the appearance of the country, its hospi- 
tality, and its antiquities, — lam passed from hand to hand, 
as an American, with such warmth of feeling, that I have to 
break forcibly oflT firom engagements, and make my way as 

6 



62 IRELAND. 

fast as possible to Liverpool, where I hope to receive letters 
from home. 

I could not, however, by universal command of my friends, 
leave Tipperary without visiting the very old town and Rock 
of Cashell, pronounced on all hands the greatest curiosity in the 
south of Ireland. I therefore paid my bill at the old inn, and 
took my passage for Cashell by the morning route. 

Cashell. On repairing to the coach- office at an early hour, 
I found I was to cross the country in a very curious machine ; 
it was an Irish jaunting-car of antique build, so constructed as 
to carry a vast amount of luggage; on the whole, it looked 
more like an old Philadelphia fire-engine than any thing else ; 
the driver's box, where I was to sit, was mounted in the air, 
to make a place for carpet-bags, and represented the top 
whence the water of the engine is discharged. 1 was by no 
means gratified with the equipage provided by Bianconi, and 
the horses were still more objectionable, to say nothing of a 
pair of extra wheels, which were mounted on the extreme 
centre, between the backs of the passengers ; the horses had 
been evidently worn out in the service of a main route; they 
were now destined to do duty on a cross-trip of less import- 
ance. 

We dashed through Clonmel with tolerable speed, but at 
the first ascent the wagon ran back, the horses giving out. 
All hands walked up ; the coach followed slowly, rain fell in 
abundance, and we passed again a fine country, landing in 
Cashell in time for dinner at another rustic inn, situated in a 
town of mud-huts at the foot of the far-famed Rock of Cashell, 
commanding the whole country on every side, its top occupied 
by a magnificent old Castle, and one of the best round towers 
in all Ireland. 

Bianconi, the coach-owner on many important routes, is an 
instance of rapid rise from poverty. A poor Italian boy, he 
carried his pack through Ireland; observing that the people 
had imperfect modes of travelling, he commenced with a 
single horse and car ; from small things to great was a rapid 



IRELAND. 63 

stride. He is now a wealthy man — could probably retire 
from business with fifteen thousand dollars a year income — 
but, still more important, he has been elevated by the good- 
will of his townsmen to be mayor of Clonmel. 

I have inspected the celebrated Round Tower, the ruined 
Castle, as well as the old Cathedral, all standing together on 
the top of a high natural rock, and I would give much if some 
of my friends whom I think of could have passed half a day 
with me in wandering about its old walls. The Cathedral 
was either founded or restored at the beginning of the tenth 
century ; adjoining it are the ruins of Cormac's Chapel, built 
in 901 by Cormac Mac Culinan, at once king and archbishop 
of Cashell ; this was the royal seat and metropolis of the kings 
of Munster, and the stone is shown on which, according to 
tradition, they were crowned. The Round Tower is perfect 
even to the roof; its origin or date, like all the rest, is still 
a matter of conjecture. 

Books had failed entirely to convey to me an idea of the pre- 
sent state of such a magnificent ivy-clad pile ; I dare not 
attempt a description of square towers, battlements, covered 
w^ays, port-holes, and openings over stair-cases, to pour hot 
lead upon invaders if they attained the first story; if you want 
the idea, you must come for yourself and see. The partly 
unroofed Cathedral has been put in some repair lately by the 
rector of Cashell ; the rubbish of the floor is cleared up, and 
some remarkable sculptures of the middle ages brought to 
light ; they are inserted in the interior walls ; numerous skulls 
and bones were reinterred, but many, hastily tossed into an 
old crypt, may still be handled. The interior and the outside 
is used by the neighbourhood for a burying-place : the Pene- 
father family, whose fine domain I saw this morning, have 
many monuments here, and they still inter in it. This town 
has seven ruined monastic establishments ; I have passed a 
most interesting day among them, surrounded by rafts of the 
very poorest people yet encountered. 

Yours, &c. 



64 IRELAND. 



LETTER IX. 



Dublin, May, 1845. 



Cultivation — Ireland's miserj' — Resident landlords — Ivy — Lord Portar- 
lington's domain — Its miserable state — A ihin post-master — The 
small mail — A mud hovel — Wretchedness — Alas ! poorlreland! — Dub- 
lin — St. Patrick's Cathedral — Antiquity — Repairs — Dust of ages — St. 
Patrick— Statues — Dean Swift — His bust — Stella — The Four Courts 
— Lawyers — Wigs — Ludicrous appearance — One worn in Philadel- 
phia — Sir Edward Siigden— His salary — Baron Penefather — The 
Castle — The Lord Lieutenant — Salary again — The Castle Chapel — 
Busts — Phoenix Park — Post-office — The mails starting. 

My route back to Dublin was again through a well-tilled 
country ; some portions resembled what I had pictured as the 
finest parts of England ; there were, however, evidences of 
one at least of the causes of Ireland's misery. We passed 
two or three estates of resident landlords, without titles, but 
possessing large domains, whose object it seems to have been 
to make their tenants happy ; more comfortable dwellings for 
the poor it would be hard to imagine ; the interiors were well 
lighted and clean, having two stories, while the outside was 
ornamented with roses and other plants, trained to the white 
wall. Every evidence of rural happiness surrounded these 
fine domains ; the most luxuriant ivy mounted the trees to 
their tops, and then festooned itself in a giant head ; the ex- 
cellent walls were also thus surmounted ; meadows with cat- 
tie grazing, and happy, well-dressed people, were objects 
which the eye delighted to take in, after the view of five 
thousand paupers in the town of huts I had so lately left. Im- 



IRELAND. 65 

mediately after, we came to the immense tract of land belong- 
ing- to Lord Portarlington, a ruined spendthrift submitting to 
the degradation of being supported by a former mistress. 
There was plenty of land as good as the former, but every 
thing was in ruins ; the poorest houses you can conceive of 
were tumbling down ; every thing, from the men and women 
to the donkey and the fences, appeared to be going fast to de- 
cay. A post-master, looking like Shakspeare's starved apo- 
thecary in countenance and lankness, handed up a mail-bag 
about as large as a reticule ; this contained the correspond- 
ence, if, indeed, there was any thing in it, of ten miles square. 
The agent had driven off every thing for the rent, which goes 
to pay gambling debts. The next heir, it is believed, will do 
nothing for his wretched tenantry. I inspected a mud hut, 
without windows, fire-place, or chimney, and only eight feet 
by three and a half, and five feet six high ; in this hovel 
dwelt two human beings ; at least it was their only home, 
though really they could hardly huddle under the peaked roof 
except to lie down, 

I entered many huts in Cashell where there was no win- 
dow, and no chimney ; in all were children, from babes to 
fifteen years old ; the annual rent is seven dollars, paid by one 
of the occupants, the pig. Wretchedness can little farther 
go. Not a well-dressed person did I see during the whole day 
in the populous town. Cannot something be done for this 
poor, but, considering their condition, moral population ] here 
is strength for dozens of manufactories, yet there are 
no employers ; water-power in abundance every where, but 
no mills ; finely tilled land, but the labourer who works it 
partakes not of the produce, except a scanty pittance of pota- 
toes and salt — tasting meat but once a year. Bear with me 
when I repeat that he is surrounded by plenty, but that food, 
which he by Nature's law is entitled to, is exported ; it feeds 
the soldiers, twenty-one thousand of whom are quartered upon 
the land ; it nurses the police, stationed every fev/ miles over 
the whole country, to keep the inhabitants, down to starving 

6* 



66 IRELAND. 

point, from committing felony. One must exclaim constantly, 
— " Something surely is wrong !" — " Alas, poor Ireland !" 

It is cheering, after riding for some hundreds of miles 
through even the finest country, to be welcomed back to the 
thicker haunts of men. Dublin again reached, I employed 
some time in the inspection of those parts which I had not yet 
seen. 

Saint Patrick's Cathedral, originally built in 1190, dedi- 
cated to the celebrated Apostle of Ireland, stands on the site' 
where stood a chapel, built by the Saint himself in the year 
448. Here is antiquity without actual neglected decay. Its 
first appearance puzzled me ; was it an imitation of age, or 
actual age 1 If it was imitation it was exaggerated, for surely 
no materials could be so dilapidated and hang together ; it 
was the eating tooth of time which had taken the mortar by 
slow degrees from between the stones ; the gothic pinnacles 
looked as if they would fall. If they were put up a, few hun- 
dred years ago only, it must have been rude hands and poor 
morfar that were employed. The exterior is most remarka- 
ble, and cannot be described by either pen or pencil. 

The church is again undergoing repairs, which it greatly 
requires very often; it looked worse than usual from the pre- 
sence of materials strewn on its floors ; but the dust on those 
statues, and pictures, and helmets, is the accumulation of hun- 
dreds of years. Near the west end of the north aisle is the 
image of Saint Patrick, discovered when making some repairs 
half a century or so since, but in a mutilated state, the frac- 
tures repaired, and standing on a projecting corbel from the 
wall, and bearing the modern da-te of" 1190." Various other 
queer statues and projecting ornamental mural tablets of sub- 
sequent dates arrest the eye, together with one or two white 
marble full-length sitting figures of modern divines, orna- 
ments of Trinity College, hers interred. They look as much 
out of place as a belle in white muslin at a funeral. 

The American visiter is attracted here by a bust, resting 
on a column fifteen feet above the pavement, of Dean Swift 



IRELAND. 67 

— the Dean of St. Patrick's best known to us, with an inscrip- 
tion in Latin, expressive of that hatred of oppression and love 
of liberty vi^hich his other writings breathe, for it was written 
by himself. The bust was placed there in 1776, by Faulkner, 
the original printer of his works. Near by, but divided by a 
pavement, emblematic of Swift's cold attachment to Stella, is 
a white marble slab, to the memory of iVIrs. Hester Johnson, 
on which is this inscription :— 

" Underneath lie the mortal remains of Mrs. Hester John- 
son, better known to the world by the name of STELLA, 
under which she is celebrated in the writings of Dr. Jonathan 
Swift, Dean of this Cathedral. She was a person of extraor- 
dinary endowments of body, mind, and behaviour. Justly ad- 
mired and respected by all who knew her, on account of her 
many eminent virtues, as well as for her great natural and 
acquired perfections. She died, January 27, 1727-8, in the 
46th year of her age, and by her will bequeathed one thousand 
pounds towards the support of a chaplain to the Hospital 
founded in this city by Dr. Stevens." 

Thoughts and memories crowd upon the mind as you stand 
opposite these two inscriptions, the likeness of the Dean quite 
perfect before you, and Stella's bones mouldering beneath 
your feet. - 

One of the handsomest buildings in Dublin is the Law, or 
Four Courts. I was taken there by a member of the bar, as 
we should style him in Philadelphia, at one o'clock, when the 
rotunda in the centre presented the appearance, as to num- 
bers, of the New York Exchange at 'change hour, with this 
marked difference, that the merchants present were traders 
in cases, but not cases of silks or tea ; they were the active 
members of the profession, all dressed in wigs, giving them a 
great uniformity of appearance, and an odd look like theatri- 
cal performers by daylight. It was my first view of this head- 
dress, and its appearance was ludicrous rather than solemn. 
There are a thousand of these professional men admitted to 
practice, but many do not attend the courts. Those present 



68 IRELAND. 

bustling about in little coteries, communicating on business, 
passing a joke, and so on, much as you see our members of the 
bar in the Law Library, but, being in such numbers, and so 
dressed, in a place of great size, and all at ease in their queer 
frizzled whalebone gray wigs, they made an impression which 
I shall not soon forget.* 

The court rooms, notwithstanding the size of the building, 
are all extremely small ; here was the Lord Chancellor of 
Ireland, Sir Edward Sugden, whose salary is double that of 
President Polk ; — his brother — and Baron Penefather, with 
many other distinguished men less known to fame. The ex- 
pense of this building was about a million of dollars, but why 
the court rooms are stuck in little corners, entered by raising 
double red curtains, would puzzle a "Philadelphia lawyer." 
There are numbers of offices attached. 

The Castle is well worth visiting ; it is the winter resi- 
dence of the Lord Lieutenant, in a quadrangle, and with uni- 
form buildings on each side, occupied as offices by the govern- 
ment officials, such as the Master of Ceremonies, and the 
Aides-de-Camp to his Excellency, at present Lord Heytes- 
bury, formerly Sir William A'Court. 

The salary of these chief governors of Ireland is one hun- 
dred thousand dollars per annum ! Is it any wonder that the 
people are poor, when they have to support such titled gentry 
and a standing army of twenty-one thousand men, not in- 
cluding the police met with every where ] 

The Castle chapel is the handsomest room of the kind I 
have yet seen ; the exterior is ornamented with no less than 
ninety heads formed of dark marble, including all the sove- 

* T purchased a lau^'er's wig in Dublin, and brought it home; a 
member of the Philadelphia bar had courage enough to wear it in 
open court, to the no small amusement of ail present ; a grand ha! ha ! 
broke onl from every corner of the room. What is worn as a mark of 
dignity in Great Britain became ludicrous in America; — such is the 
effect of habit and training. The judge was obliged to request the 
wearer to " take it off, and not make his court ridiculous!" 



IRELAND. 69 

reigns of England. The great entrance is surmounted by a 
fine bust of St. Peter holding a key, and above it, over a 
window, is a bust of Dean Swift, who with Edmund Burke 
among the moderns, and Saint Patrick of the ancients, are 
the great names of Dublin. The Saint and Brian Boroihme, 
King of Ireland, are also commemorated in the chapel. The 
interior is beautiful in the extreme ; it consists of a choir, 
without a nave or transept, finished in the richest style of 
Gothic architecture. Between the buttresses springing from 
grotesque heads, are pointed windows, surmounted by labels, 
while the east window over the communion table is adorned 
with stained glass ; the subject is Christ before Pilate. The 
thrones for the Lord Lieutenant and the Archbishops, are 
luxurious and costly. 

A drive round Phoenix Park, where the Wellington testi- 
monial towers in inelegant grandeur, is not to be forgotten. 
There may be seen a poor attempt at a zoological garden, a 
number of mangy-looking deer, and the summer residence of 
several of the official officers of highest rank and salary. 

The Post-office, opposite our hotel, the great Nelson Monu- 
ment before it, is a magnificent building adorning Sackville 
Street ; the mail-coaches for the interior of Ireland assemble 
in the hollow square every evening, and having received 
their meagre bags, set out on their different destinations. A 
quarter of a minute before eight the door is begun to be un- 
barred, and at the first stroke of the clock the gate is opened, 
when one after another issues in quick succession, with its 
red-coated guard, passengers, and luggage, and hampers piled 
up, and with sound of the merry bugle. This regularly 
attracts a great crowd ; one coach this evening, the very last, 
was delayed about a minute, and as it came lagging out, was 
hooted for its dilatoriness. Two or three painted little cars 
for the new rail-road stations, were among the number, with 
their red guards and horns ; but they looked, with all their 
gaiety, shorn of their dignity by modern improvement. In a 
very short time railroads will mainly destroy this animating 
spectacle. Yours, &c., truly. 



70 IRELAND. 



LETTER X, 



Dublin, May, 1845. 



Foreman of O'Connell's jury — O'Connell's prison — The prisoners' treat- 
ment — Nice apartments — His supplies— Light imprisonment — Con- 
duct of his followers — His reception tent — Irish prisons — The silent 
and the Pennsylvania systems — Neither practised — Gold dog-collars 
— Lord Ross's telescope. 

If you are not tired of Ireland, allow me to introduce you 
to the prison where O'Connell was confined. Walking- 
through Dubliti with a gentleman to whom I had a letter, he 
stopped a smart, intelligent person, to introduce him thus : 
" This is the distinguished Mr. Hamilton, foreman of the jury 
that convicted O'Connell !" He is a man of great local cele- 
brity. 

The prison is a handsome structure, resembling in its gene- 
ral aspect many in America. Mr. Cooper, the deputy-keeper, 
very kindly showed us through it, and complied with an oft- 
repeated request, I dare say, to inspect the rooms and ground 
where O'Connell passed his time. On the prisoner arriving 
at the prison door, Mr. Cooper said : " Mr. O'Connell, if you 
give me your word of honour that you will make no attempt 
to escape, the liberty of the entire prison shall be yours." 
The word was given, and an arrangement soon made for Mr. 
Cooper's private apartments, with the liberty of two large 
gardens, certainly containing four entire acres. The rooms, 
in the main, are still as he used them, handsomely furnished ; 
say velvet ottoman, piano, &c., in the airy drawing-room ad- 
joining a smaller, then fitted up as a chapel for the priests, 



IRELAND. 71 

who came daily to perform the church services. His dining- 
room would accommodate, and did so, a large party : dinner 
was sent by his followers daily in great abundance for him- 
self, his son John and wife, &c., and there they lived, as we 
know, very well. The liberty he enjoyed of the gardens, 
was enhanced by the erection of a mound for his pleasure, 
with a covered seat and glass sides, overlooking the country, 
roads, &c. — making the imprisonment as light as was pos- 
sible. 

During his stay, the people constantly assembled around 
the prison walls, gazing upon them by the hour as upon the 
shrine of a living saint. One of the gardens is cultivated as 
well as a private gentleman's. Here the " liberator" had a 
tent erected of considerable size, to receive his company, who 
came in great numbers, and were admitted by sending up 
their cards. 

I have visited several prisons in Ireland where the silent 
system is in operation to a limited extent, under such regula- 
tions as do not give a fair chance of proving any thing ; and 
where also the solitary system of Pennsylvania is aimed at 
without understanding what is meant by it. Their silent 
plan, for instance, consists of making a dozen shoemakers 
work in a room together, with orders to be silent ; but the 
turnkey who ought to enforce it, is idly sitting by a fire in an 
adjoining room. The solitaire is weaving in a small apart- 
ment, with the door open, and people are passing all the 
time ; and he is put to sleep in a room with other prisoners ! 
They seem to have heard of both systems, and to practise 
neither. The jails are, I am sorry to say, numerous ; there are 
two in Tipperary county, the one in Clonmel having three 
hundred prisoners at this moment. 

One of the gentlemen who accompanied me over O'Con- 
nell's prison encountered his servant, who was incarcerated 
a few days before for purloining ; he had exchanged the foot- 
man's livery, for the garb of the prison ; he was young, with 



72 IRELAND. 

a handsome face, and burst into tears when he saw his 
master — a sign that some good may be expected. 

I had ceased to write, and went to make a call on a friend : 
at a store-door where I was to see some native Irish silver in 
large masses, 1 encountered a beggar in great distress ; step- 
ping in, the owner was opening a package from Birmingham, 
containing plate ordered for individuals. He exhibited his 
articles with pride; among them were two gold dog-collars! 
Shall I say the dogs wear gold, and the poor beg for bread ! 

I had an invitation to go and see Lord Ross's telescope, 
about fifty miles from .Dublin ; but was sorry to hear it was 
not now visible, owing to some mechanical arrangements' 
being in progress. 

Yours, &c. 



ENGLAND. 



LETTERXI. 

Liverpool, May, 1845. 

Leave Dublin — English steamboatj to Liverpool — Chester races — The 
docks — Railroad for London — Its excellence — Coaches — Tunnels — 
Civility of the officers — Contrast — London — Light sovereigns — ^The 
Great Britain steam-ship — Blackwall railway — Thames Tunnel — A 
failure — Appearance of London — First impressions — The League 
Bazaar. 

Taking the railroad for Kingstown, seven miles, you join 
the mail-steamer, having excellent, and very English accom- 
modations ; it conveys you very comfortably, if you are not 
sick, in the night, to Liverpool, where be sure to go to the 
true Waterloo Hotel. My friends, the R.'s, had been looking 
for me for a long time, and were prepared to offer me more 
than the civilities of mere friendship. The Chester races are 
near at hand ; many came over with us from Dublin to attend 
them : as that old city is crowded with gentry of the turf, I 
defer a promised visit to it ; inspect the docks of Liverpool, a 
few public institutions, accept a few of many civilities offered 
with no sparing hand, and take railroad for overgrown London. 
Trains leave several times a day, one performing the distance, 
two hundred and ten miles, in six hours. Preferring a more 
moderate speed, v/ith views, at more leisure, I took the first- 
class coaches, to reach my quarters and friends in nine hours. 
Liverpool is another New York ; it is growing still with great 
rapidity ; the docks on the opposite side of the river, are to 
rival those splendid accommodations for which this city has 
been so celebrated. 



76 ENGLAND. 

London, May, 1845. 

The railroad between Liverpool and London is certainly the 
best I have ever seen. The carriages of the " first-class" are 
extremely comfortable ; made to resemble in form the old post- 
coach, each division will contain six persons, with plenty of 
room, and comfortably stuffed arms between each. The 
moment of arrival and departure at every station is timed ; we 
arrived always at or before this period, and started punctually. 
At Birmingham, there was an elegant dinner provided, and 
time given to eat it ; the stations are so large that there is no 
confusion ; a man goes round at several places, and wipes the 
dust from the plate glass windows. As there are several long 
tunnels between Birmingham and London, two very neat 
lamps, having round globes of glass, were lighted, by which 
passengers could read when we were under ground. Every 
officer was civil in the extreme. The whole route was 
travelled without fatigue ; and I could not but contrast the 
arrangements and civility with some near home, where you 
are treated as if you were not entitled to any more respect 
than a bale of goods. When will our people wake up to this 
monstrous evil — demand a good boat across the Delaware* 
larger station-houses, and civil attendance ! We were not 
bothered once all the way from Liverpool to London with 
showing our tickets. 

On arriving at London, you find abundance of cabs along- 
side your car, and in five minutes, without jostling or confu- 
sion, an immense number of passengers and enormous amounts 
of luggage have all disappeared to their several destinations, 
without imposition from cabmen. These things all want 
regulation in America. 

While on the subject of travelling, let me mention that 
most of our Philadelphia friends had provided themselves with 
sovereigns, for immediate use on landing ; as it turned out 
this was convenient, enabling me, for one, to despatch my 
visit to Ireland without going to my banker in Liverpool ; but 
nearly every sovereign thus brought was short in weight, and 



ENGLAND. 77 

they were occasionally refused ; some lost eight pence on the 
twenty shillings. They were of the coinage of George the 
Third ; the Victoria's have not been subjected to the process 
of sweating. This hint may be useful to future travellers. 

I went with some friends to-day to visit the new" steamer 
Great Britain, lying in the Thames, and advertised to sail 
from Liverpool in July. We proceeded by the Blackwall 
railway, which runs over the tops of a vast many houses 
occupied by poor people, and higher than the roofs of thousands 
around it ! Like the Diable Boiteux, we rolled over the 
chimneys ; had the tile-roofs been removed, we might, like the 
said Diable, have discovered some curious specimens of 
humanity. The ship is of enormous dimensions, say three 
thousand tons ; has state-rooms for two hundred and fifty-two 
passengers ; four engines of two hundred and fifty horse-power 
each ; and is altogether a specimen of naval architecture to 
excite the wonder of Americans : if the experiment should 
prove successful, of which doubts are expressed by many, its 
construction will mark another era in the history of the inter- 
course already binding nations so strongly together. The 
charge for visiting it is one shilling, and another sixpence to 
view the engines : judging from the large numbers on board 
this very wet day, she must be paying something considerable 
towards her outfit, by the operation. 

From thence we visited the Thames Tunnel, so often and 
so well described ; it is almost the only place I have yet seen 
which fully agrees with my expectations previously formed. 
I will not punish you with a new guide to it, but may remark, 
that it is eminently a failure in a pecuniary point of vi^w. 
Stalls between the pillars are occupied by venders of various 
knick-knacks — glass tubes to view the perspective of the 
scene — toys, cakes, and medals depicting the entrances and 
arches, much in request by strangers. At the foot of one stair- 
case was a very small boy stationed on a table, playing very 
well on a harp ; at the other, flutists and violinists vied in 
making a noise and an echo, to attract pennies from idlers j but 

7# 



78 E N G L A N D. 

few seem to use the Tunnel as a means of shortening- the 
route from side to side. The toll is two cents. No carriages 
can descend, nor is there a near prospect of the Company- 
being' able to purchase sufficient ground to make a descent 
easy enough for them. 

The general appearance of London, as we ride through it, 
is superior and more metropolitan than other cities ; the stores 
are not generally much more showy; we feel little tempted 
to make purchases; there is so muck, a.nd we expect to have 
better opportunities in Paris. No calculation as to the time 
of getting from one place to another can be made, for in njany 
places we have been stopped by crowds of vehicles for a 
length of time, till a policeman interferes and sets us all in 
motion again. The enormous wagons with huge horses greatly 
impede progress; add to these great busses, carts, brewer's 
drays, funerals, carriages and outriders, and no wonder there 
are impediments ; yet this difficulty is less than I anticipated* 
or than might fairly be expected. It is the height of the 
London season ; crowds of people on all kinds of errands are 
in town ; not the least attraction, is the great League Bazaar, 
at Covent Garden Theatre. It is so jammed with ladies and 
gentlemen as to make access very difficult. 

Yours, very truly. 



ENGLAND. 79 



LETTER XII. 

London, May, 1815. 

Facilities of a trip to Europe — Mr. Derby's flying visit — What he 
accomplished in sixfy-two days from Boston — The expenses — Con- 
trast with 1806 — No post-coaches — Lionizing — The London streets 
— Civility— Regent Street — The distances— Liveries — Carriages — 
The coachmen — Signs — Advertisements — Omnibus drivers — Beer 
sled — Rain — Music grinders — Tumblers — Houses of Lords and 

' Commons — The Woolsack — Westminster Abbey— Dean Wilberforce 
— Worship — Poet's Corner — The tour of the monuments — The tooth 
of ages— The guide — The chapels— Cleaning— Great names— Henry 
the Seventh's Chapel — Tombs of Henry and others — Royal vault — 
Edward the Confessor— Royal stone of Scotland — Coronation chairs 
—More monurnents — Major Andre — Chilliness. 

The facilities now offered for a trip to and in Europe, are 
so great as almost to exceed tiie belief of persons who have 
not investigated the subject ; contrasted with those enjoyed by 
our fathers, they are so numerous as to make one wonder th;U 
even more Americans do not avail themselves of them. In my 
letters, which will necessarily be written in an off-hand, hur- 
ried manner, I shall probably detail some of the changes which 
have occurred within so short a space of time, that books have 
yet not got hold of them, or only partially. Steam, and the 
completion of the great railroad routes of England and the 
Continent, have done much. As an instance of what may be 
accomplished, a Mr. Derby of Massachusetts, left Boston last 
October, and in the brief space of sixty-two days, twice 
crossed the Atlantic ; devoted a week to London and its en- 



80 ENGLAND. 

virons, another to Paris and Versailles, gave the greater part 
of a day to each of the great cities of Liverpool, Birmingham, 
Brighton, Dieppe, Rouen, Nancy, Strasburg, Heidelburg, 
Baden-Baden, Frankfort, Cologne, Aix-la-Chapelle, Verviers^ 
Liege, Malines, Antwerp, Oxford, Derby, York, Leeds, and 
Manchester; sailed dovi'n the Rhine, from Mayence by 
Coblentz to Cologne, and transacted considerable business be- 
sides. This can only be done by the aid of the steamers 
across the Atlantic ; but by adding a few more days, you may 
take packet from Philadelphia or New York, and return by 
Cunard's line, or the Great Western, or Great Britain. The 
expenses of such a delightful and improving tour, I shall be 
able to give you in a future letter. 

How different is all this from the time and annoyance for- 
merly encountered ; for instance. Professor Silliman, in 1806, 
was seven days in a miserable smack, going from London to 
Rotterdam, at a cost of five guineas; the trip is now performed 
in a few hours, for a trifle, with comfort and in good company, 
though better routes to the Continent are now preferred, and 
they also are cheap. 

The country, as seen from the railroad on the route to Lon- 
don, is uninteresting ; in cultivation not to be compared to 
Ireland, though it is better enclosed, and free from the mise- 
rable huts every where visible along all the routes in the 
Green Island. We wished often for the old post-coach, that 
we might see as in old times, but no such vehicle is known 
on the route ; the former celebrated post-horses and coach- 
men have disappeared before steam, and you are compelled 
to take " the rail," the short word adopted here exclusively 
for railroad. 

Safely landed in London, we are comfortably domesticated 
at No. 5, Foley Place, Cavendish Square, Regent Street, 
where are assembled six Americans, all " lionizing and sight- 
seeing ;" — take my word for it, the hardest work ever I en- 
countered, i You don't yet know where you are exactly, and 
when you do find the place on the map, the moment the first 



ENGLAND. 81 

corner is turned, you are lost. The streets twist about in an 
extraordinary manner, taking a different name before you 
know it ; Cheapside, Cornhill, and Leadenhall Street, main 
avenues, run directly into each other, so that you soon get 
wrong; not unfrequently on inquiry you find yourself going 
away from the place you are in search of; in a dilemma, 
you seek the policeman, seen in every neighbourhood pacing 
his rounds, dressed in blue, with standing collar and lace, 
with his number on his arm and hat ; or if he is not visible, 
any person you ask will most civilly put you right. Step 
out then into Regent Street with me ; let us inquire our way 
to " the city," through the mazes which have successively 
grown into so many great cities, piled on each other ; we are 
three miles from the extreme west end, and it is four to " the 
Bank," from whence most of the omnibuses hail, and to which 
you can go for twelve and a half cents, from nearly every 
point. Keep these distances in your mind, when you think 
of us trying our best to see the most in the shortest time. 

The mind is first impressed with the fact that almost every 
visible thing is different in its form or material from what 
you have been accustomed to. The houses, carriages, shops, 
dresses, are all singular and novel. There is a turn-out with 
livery ; the coachman in lace-hat, cuffs, and small-clothes, 
with a flaming waistcoat ; two other liveried, stalwart men, 
in silk stockings, are behind, bearing gold-headed canes ; on 
the panel is a coronet ; the inmate is a lady of some age, or 
a young mother with children beside her, and a nurse. Yon- 
der another coach has stopped at a shop ; the servant in 
a drab coat and pantaloons, who has let his mistress out, is 
lounging at the door, ready for instant service when required ; 
the grave coachman, looking sleek as his well-groomed horses, 
seems pondering on the national debt, though really he is 
thinking of less momentous affairs ; did he make his appear- 
ance in your streets, with the prestige of a title, he is suffi- 
ciently well dressed to pass for a lord with those who have 
never seen his class here ; when a party of Americans went 



82 ENGLAND. 

to see the residence of the Mayor of Liverpool, or so much 
as is publicly exhibited, one of them took off his hat to the 
porter, expecting to be introduced to him as my lord himself! 
A succession of such sights, red plush and velvet breeches, 
soon familiarizes you to the scene, and you forget its queer 
first impression. 

The names of the signs with the professions will amuse 
you. William Gotobed will make you an excellent dress 
coat of cloth that will wear two years and then look well, for 
sixteen dollars ; his next-door neighbour keeps a " Funeral 
Feather Warehouse ;" opposite is inscribed in gold letters, 
" Anatomical Bootmaker." Mr. " Death from Aldgate" sells 
drygoods. You have not gone the distance of a square, when 
you find your hand half-filled with advertisements, so neatly 
thrust at you as almost to have escaped your attention ; little 
volumes even are among the number, especially one of a Mr. 
Moses, who has a clothing store as large as both rooms of In- 
dependence Hall. The everlasting omnibus drivers are con- 
stantly addressing very insinuating words and motions, in- 
viting you to ride somewhere that you never heard of. 
Here goes a low sled, filled with empty beer barrels, finding 
a suitable foundation of slippery mud, just moistened by a 
water cart in the intervals of the rain, which has fallen every 
day since we landed, while to-day, the 13th of May, we had 
hail between sunshiny half hours and dripping showers. 
Music-grinders hither and yon, disturb the ear day and night ; 
a set of tumblers have just elevated one of their number on 
their shoulders and heads to a great height, the dirty feet of 
those in the air making havoc with the theatrical dresses of 
those below ; a few coppers from the gapers satisfies their 
lofty ambition. 

But you have missed your way ! a couple of miles have 
been passed, shops of all imaginable goods have caught your 
eye, and you have got out of your latitude. You started to 
go to St. James's Park, and find yourself in progress towards 
Westminster Abbey. Let us enter its renowned cloisters, 



ENGLAND. 83 

and take our first hasty survey ; how different from what you 
expected ! It is difficult for a stranger to find his way to the 
only open entrance in one side ; first you are told that you 
go in at the Poet's Corner ; you trample over a host of oblong 
old grave-stones, laid flat on the ground, and not in the best 
preservation ; no grass creeps up from the interstices, so close 
is their proximity. Seeing no door, you feel yourself going 
wrong ; inquiry convinces you that the way lies on the other 
side, in seeking which, an official-looking personage, with a 
badge and number, informs you, you can now see the House 
of Commons and House of Lords on the other side of the 
street, as the house-keeper is just going to shut up previous 
to the meeting. You expend your half dollar there first, sit 
on the woolsack, see the mean small rooms, and return to the 
Abbey. A good-looking person in black takes your umbrella, 
without which never venture out, — gives you a ticket, and 
invites you to wait till service is over. Dean Wilberforce, 
son of the philanthropist, was installed dean this very day ; 
the officials may all lose their places to-morrow ; there is 
some confusion among them. Worship is going on in the 
great chapel, under the noble roof; the singing is fine, the 
service is read in a hurried tone — amen is musically chaunt- 
ed, the few idlers like ourselves are in motion, seeking to be 
in the first party to see the monuments. We have lingered 
around the names of Dryden, Cowley, Chaucer, Ben Jonson, 
Samuel Butler, Edmund Spenser, Milton, Mason, Prior, 
Shakspeare, Thomson, Rowe, Addison, Handel, Garrick, 
Beaumont, and a host of less, though greatly distinguished 
men. Their monuments are principally mural, (or attached 
to the wall,) of various excellence and cost, according to the 
money it was found practicable to collect, and not according 
to merit. 

The second party of twenty-five is now forming at the iron 
gate, leading to the various small chapels where lie the ho- 
noured remains of the great of so many generations ; the 
gate-keeper opens slowly his wicket, asks as a matter of bu- 



84 ENGLAND. 

siness for sixpence, passes you through, and the next twenty- 
four follow. Soon a clerical-looking, rosy-faced guide, in 
black gown, appears, to explain, with wand in air, what yet 
you have no distinct idea of. You enter the chapel of St. 
Benedict, a small irregular high room, where time has made 
inroads on marble and stone, such as you have never before 
conceived of, if your sight-seeing has been confined to Ame- 
rican objects. The monuments are all under cover of a good 
roof and glass windows, but the tooth of ages has eaten and 
disfigured those elaborate prostrate efiigies of knights, war- 
riors, bishops, nay, of kings and queens. The guide is above 
most of his profession in information, and points to and ex- 
plains the crumbling stone remains, erected at enormous 
cost, in the vain attempt to perpetuate names and memories, 
whose greatness is forgotten by the assembled strangers. 
Close by you is a costly monument of mosaic work, for the 
children of Henry III. and Edward I. 

You progress thus through eight chapels or small apart- 
ments, where probably you expected to find an open area, but 
these chapels are not shut off by doors ; they communicate 
with the main passage round the scene of the worship you 
witnessed, or stretch off from the main pile, as in the case of 
Henry VII.'s chapel. Every possible nook is filled with effi- 
gies of men, women, and children, in all the materials ever 
employed for statues. The softer stones have crumbled 
much, to prevent which, pious descendants have painted 
them ; in two places stone-cutters were at work, cleaning 
the marbles, and in another the scrubbing-brush and water 
had left a damp floor. Careful deans at different times, but 
especially of latter years, have endeavoured to arrest the 
progress of decay, and have cleaned up what heirs have ne- 
glected. Till the time of George IV., any body and every 
body that chose, wandered about with sticks or canes, de- 
facing noses, or marking statues ; now all are watched. 
Cromwell's soldiers were quartered in the Abbey, and stole 



ENGLAND. 85 

much brass ; beautiful stones, forming mosaic-worked tombs, 
have been picked entirely out, and carried away. 

Do you want a list of great names thus handed down 
through hundreds of years ; I will give you only a few that 
struck me ; for the rest, consult those modern preservers of 
fame, the guide-books, the most recent being Cruchley's. 
On a tomb lies the curious effigy of Lady Frances, Duchess 
of Suifolk, dressed in her proper robes. On an altar-tomb, 
the figure of Lady Elizabeth Russell, daughter of Lord 
John Russell, in translucent alabaster, as hard as marble. 
She died from having pricked her finger with a needle. 
Near is Lady Jane Seymour. An expensive monument 
commemorates a master of the buckhounds to Queen Eliza- 
beth ; a most magnificent temple is erected to the memory of 
Ann, Duchess of Somerset ; grandee follows, noble, with effi- 
gies of wife and children, till the mind is lost in the enume- 
ration of names, whose owners exercised their brief autho- 
rity, left estates, and are thus consigned to a few hundred 
years of notoriety in the eyes of idle gazers. 

Enter now Henry the Seventh's chapel, with the points of 
which you are so familiar. It is dingy with age, but truly 
beautiful and costly ; erected at great expense by the mo- 
narch whose name it bears, as a place of sepulture for him- 
self and family, the first stone was laid three hundred and 
forty years ago, and the whole was completed in nine years, 
fame having omitted to transmit the name even of the archi- 
tect. Henry died before its completion, having richly en- 
dowed the works. The decorations of this edifice are so 
beautiful as to have called forth this criticism from an emi- 
nent judge, " that, it appeared as if the artist had intended to 
give to stone the character of embroidery, and to enclose his 
walls within the meshes of lace-work." Leland calls it 
" orbis miraculum," and according to Hollingshead, it cost a 
million of dollars of the present currency ; a fourth more has 
been employed by Parliament to renovate it. Within a mag- 
nificent brass screen is the tomb of Henry and his queen, the 

8 



86 ENGLAND. 

figures of cast copper, once resplendent with gilding. There 
is also a very magnificent monument to Mary Queen of 
Scots ; one to Lady Walpole, the figure erect and tall. At 
the end lie the remains of Charles the Second, King William 
Third, and consort, Queen Anne, and Prince George. We 
now enter the nave of the chapel, where are installed the 
knights of the Order of the Bath. Between the knights' 
stalls is the royal vault, where King George the Second and 
Queen Caroline are buried, with other royal personages; 
Edward the Sixth, who died in the sixteenth year of his age, 
and seventh of his reign. I must stop my catalogue, or it 
will fill my letter if I only insert the greatest names. 

In the centre of Edward the Confessor's chapel stands the 
venerable shrine of St. Edward, sadly defaced ; here is the 
old coronation chair, last used by Victoria, which you take a 
seat in, and imagine the great distance between you and its 
honours, possibly thinking, as I did, that an American citizen 
enjoys more liberty than a crowned head. Under it is the 
stone brought from Scone, and superstitiously reverenced by 
the Scotch, as the place where Scotia's kings were crowned ; 
the Scots are supposed to have become reconciled to a union 
with England from a prophetic distich cut upon it by King 
Kenneth, as follows : — 

" Where'er this stone is found, (or fate's decree is vain,) 
The Scots the sanae shall hold, and there supremely reign." 

There are tv/o coronation chairs, for king and queen, and 
when in use, they are covered with gold tissue. In a chantry 
are the wax efiigies of Queen Elizabeth, &c., &c., in their 
coronation robes, and one of Lord Nelson. As you leave, 
look upon the modern white marble statues of Watt and 
Wilberforce; the celebrated monument to General Wolfe, 
and several military men known to fame as having been in 
America ; stop also before that of Major Andre, one of the 
most beautiful of the small raised tablets on the wall ; Pitt 
and Fox, Sir Isaac Newton, and others innumerable. Emerge 



ENGLAND. 87 

then upon the busy thoroughfare of London, and wonder, that 
such a temple can be surrounded with a million of people 
seeking to earn their pittance of bread, and content to moul- 
der to ignoble forgetfulness. 

The whole place is cold — cold with a feeling of marble 
chilliness, which has struck you already with disease ; you 
must go' home to recover, and to think. 

Yours ever, &c. 



LETTER XIIL 

London, May, 1845. 

Go among living people — Breakfast with a literary bachelor — Hatch- 
ments — A bachelor's apartments — The Reform Club — The clerk and 
footman's duties — The library — The interior of the club-house — The 
furniture — Scagliola — Dining-room — The kitchen — The head cook 
and his assistants — The marketing, fish, &c. — Mons. Soyer — The 
cook a man of vertii — His wife a painter of celebrity — His studio — 
Dressing-rooms — Bedchambers — Cost of the club-house — Number of 
members — Card-playing — Makes unhappy homes — The Conserva- 
tive club-house — Grand effect — Prices of food — Ilry the cook — His 
salary — Uses of a club — Guildhall — Mansion-house — Royal institu- 
tion — Mr. Faraday — Titled audience— ^Mr. F. a model lecturer — 
Anti-slavery Society^ — Texas annexation — State of the Jamaica 
blacks. 

If you were patient enough to read my last letter, you 
accompanied me to Westminster Abbey among the people 
that have passed away. Let us go to-day among ihe living — 
the actual actors of the present hour, who in like manner are 
so soon to be ranked with the past. I am invited to break- 
fast at the West End, at the usual hour of ten o'clock ; the 
distance from my residence in the West is two miles ; so we 
order a cab at half-past nine, and drive to Lower Grosvenor 
Square. London is not fairly astir yet, probably about as 
much so as Chestnut Street at seven. Those elegant armo- 



88 ENGLAND. 

rial bearing's or escutcheons on a square resembling a carpet, 
on the third story of several houses, indicate that death has 
entered the dwelling; they encounter you in every respecta- 
ble quarter. The custom is to allow them to remain up a 
whole year. 

My host this morning is a literary bachelor. His house is 
found, the knocker shaken ; but so near ten, and my friend is 

not up ! Alas ! he was out late last night at Lady 's 

party ; he, however, soon appears ; breakfast is served by the 
ever-useful garcon in plush breeches ; coffee excellent, and 
all neat as a married man could wish, cleanliness predomi- 
nating over every thing. We chat an hour, walk through 
his recherche library, where all is gilt, from the backs of the 
books to the cases, room-doors and ceiling. Music and the 
fine arts here seem to reign supreme ; a high grade of mind, 
cultivated by education and the best society, have made the 
possessor happy in the consciousness of power ; in its kind not 
to be compared with that of his noble neighbours,— but still 
power. 

I have an engagement at two to see some of the modern 
club-houses : go with your and my American eyes to the cele- 
brated Reform Club, calling a moment to deliver some more 
letters of introduction and make some purchases. My friend 
the member of the Reform, has not arrived, say the clerk and 
footman installed within the door in large and comfortable 
ante-rooms; the former keeps a large book of accounts, noting 
the log-book of the club like our mate at sea ; he receives 
messages and cards for members, their letters, &c., and de- 
spatches others. Very civilly invited into the hall, we sit 
down on morocco couches made for comfort as well as show. 
The truly spacious square area before you, lighted by an im- 
mense skylight, is paved with tessellated figures; the co- 
lumns, at least twenty, are lofty and made of exquisite scag- 
liola, the bases of different colours; opposite is a fine bust of 
Victoria. This is the day that members are allowed for a 
few hours to exhibit the entire interior to ladies, several par- 



ENGLAND. 89 

ties of whom, highly dressed, are passing in and out. At 
length my friend arrives, a lady under each arm ; turning to 
the right we enter a library as luxurious as you may con- 
ceive ; the carpets are the finest and thickest ; the furniture 
neat and convenient, including a dais in the centre with pil- 
lows, &c,, made of cut velvet. The beautiful tables have the 
best daily and weekly papers, Punch and all, and here are 
members of Parliament reading, surrounded by law and other 
books. My conductor is, no doubt, a great Reformer, for every 
body shakes his hand, and of course I am introduced to men 
of names known to fame on our shores. Emerge slowly, for 
my friend seems in no hurry, and you encounter a fine, large 
portrait of the late Lord Holland, beside one of the late Duke 
of Sussex ; there are other niches for similar portraits, when 
fame has sounded the tocsin sufficiently long, on this side of 
the question, to entitle any one to a consecration. Some of 
the doors about here are of bird's-eye maple, and very beau- 
tiful, while the arabesque ceilings of library and hall must 
not be forgotten as you tread the thick soft Turkey carpeting 
of the vestibule. 

We next enter a very large drawing-room, like that of a 
palace; the curtains of enormous windows are silk damask, the 
walls are gilt, and the ceilings fresco ; huge mirrors at either 
end are festooned with similar curtains. The furniture is 
covered with linen ; examine ; it is all of cut velvet, and all 
as clean and free from dust as your best parlour at home. 
Look out from the balcony of that window opening in the 
French style down to the floor ; there is a fine, large garden 
running past this, the Athenseum and many other club-houses 
in the same range; yonder are two of the great ornaments of 
London, towering in the smoky atmosphere — the Duke of 
York's Pillar and Nelson's Column. Here are flues highly 
ornamented for heated air, and near to one an elegant marble 
bust of John Hampden. We now rise by a white marble 
staircase, covered up with Turkey carpets, coloured glass 
windows to light it ; but the feature that strikes you most is, 

8* 
/ 



90 ENGLAND. 

that the sides, nay, the very ceiling, are of panelled scagliola, 
superbly executed, and so strongly resembling sienite, brec- 
cia, and marbles, as to be equally pleasing to the eye. 

The dining-room is fitted up much as at the London hotels, 
with small, very neat tables ready for diners, expected from 
seven to nine in the evening. Our friend seems determined 
that the ladies and all shall see thoroughly, and we descend 
to the kitchen, much celebrated for its size, but more for its 
head cook, of whose station, and that of his late wife, you are 
not yet, I dare say, prepared to hear. Women are ranged 
round several large rooms in the basement, engaged in va- 
rious occupations of the culinary art ; they are pay scholars 
of the acknowledged best cook in London, and that is saying 
much. Some are cooking by gas fires, some making pastry, 
custards, tarts ; or cooking a nice steak, a chop, and so on, 
through a dozen ranges. Several huge fires are raging, with 
screens in front to keep in the heat, and great joints are re- 
volving by means of smoke jacks, before them ; at the backs 
of the fires are iron plates, eight inches thick, which get so 
hot that if the fire goes out the meat will still roast. Puli 
out those dravv^ers there deep in the cupboard ; they are full 
of sweet-breads, spring chickens, and meats spread on towels 
over tin boxes of ice. Ah ! here comes a line of fish-trays ; 
the servants are returning from market ; a few turbot and va- 
rious other creatures of the deep, with whiffebait, a fish so 
very small that it requires careful handling, and is laid on 
white paper. 

But the cook himself! how shall I describe him 7 for I fear 
you will scarce believe what I am going to tell you. Step 
into his studio ! He is a man of vertu, I assure you ; he is 
Mens. Soyer, an accomplished gentleman in manners and in 
pictures. Madame Soyer is lately deceased ; she was a 
painter of fancy scenes, portraits, &c. ; and one of her pictures 
was so much approved as to be ordered to be engraved by the 
King of France. M. Soyer's room is surrounded on all sides 
by pictures from her brush, and really, say some connoisseurs. 



ENGLAND. 91 

they are gems.* On the table I have raised a piece of India 
paper covering- a print engraved from her " British Ceres :" 
it is scored underneath in pencil thus : " To her Grace, the 
Duchess of Sutherland, by permission, this print of the British 
Ceres, by her obliged and obedient servant, J. Soyer." This 
is a remarkable conjunction of the arts; a male and female 
artiste of different ranks certainly. Whether the pictures 
are as valuable as my friend the Reformer asserts or not, the 
poor light of the basement, and a small jet of gas, did not 
enable me to judge. Certain it is, that Mons. S. is in request 
by the nobility when they give dinner parties, and equally 
certain that the story is true of the gentleman who drove- to 
the club-houses, and got a guinea daily for dressing the salad. 
The current story in America that our citizens have been ex- 
cluded from the clubs has no foundation whatever. 

In the basement are also suites of elegant dressing-rooms 
for members, baths, &c., while the third story is used as bed- 
chambers ; the latter accommodation, however, is rarely found 
at clubs, another being about to be established in the principal 
vicinity, to consist of bed-rooms exclusively. A tea and coffee 
kitchen on a large scale closes the round of this club-palace. 
The cost of the building and furniture was four hundred thou- 
sand dollars ! There are fifteen hundred members, who pay 
one hundred and twenty dollars admission, and about forty 
dollars per annum. The avowed object of its institution was 
for the purpose of promoting the social intercourse of the Re- 
formers of the United Kingdom. Card-playing, as in all the 
other clubs, is practised nightly. One of the ladies with us, 
in answer to my question, assured me it made many unhappy 
homes. But clubs are quite the fashion, most members of 
Parliament hailing from one or the other. In the parchment 
book of members' signatures, I saw at the Reform the names 

* Mad. Soyer called on her husband one morning ; not finding him in, 
she picked up a brush, and drew on the wall a portrait of herself, instead 
of leaving her card. The likeness is pronounced admirable, and is pre- 
served with great care by the widower. 

* 



92 ENGLAND. 

of O'Connell and of John Bright, the Quaker member of Par- 
liament ; but the latter I understood had resigned. 

Next day I visited the Conservative club-house, the new 
and most splendid of all the clubs ; it is not entirely finished, 
but is open. The Hall of Entrance is one of the most beau- 
tiful things of the kind in England, having a dome of great 
height painted throughout in compartmented fresco, at a cost 
of very many thousands of dollars ; columns of marble and 
scagliola ; staircases of the same, lined v^ith statuary ; most 
comfortable library, furnished throughout with green morocco, 
and imitation of verd antique columns and pilasters ; ceilings 
high, and oak gilt ; Turkey carpets in the dining-rooms, some 
of which are for private parties, and others public ; some of the 
members were breakfasting at twelve o'clock. I took the fol- 
lowing prices from the bill of fare of the day : — mock turtle 
soup, thirty-three cents ; turbot the same ; fish of other kinds, 
twenty-five cents ; cotelettes, forty-four cents ; joints, thirty- 
three cents ; ham the same ; tarts, twelve and a half cents ; 
sirloin, thirty-three cents. Joints are always set by you to 
take what you want, and the charge would be fifty per cent, 
more, at least, at Morley's. We inspected the kitchen apart- 
ment here also, and were introduced to Mr. Ury, the friend 
of the celebrated Ude, the author, now retired from business 
and paralytic. Mr. Ury gets fifteen hundred dollars a year, 
while many men educated at universities are working as 
clerks on rail-roads for two hundred and fifty dollars ! 

Every thing was in perfect order; there was one "sauce 
larder," where one hundred sauces were ready for use, in white 
china pans. Mr. Ury showed us a patent of his for boiling 
fish by steam. The clubs are Athenseums, on a large scale, 
united to a hotel, where members are at home, eat, drink, 
read, play cards or billiards, and meet people of their own po- 
litical creed or profession. The people have now built palaces 
for themselves ; a strong feeling is apparent in various circles 
against privileged classes, and the Reform Club members are 
especially bitter. One more remark and I have done with 



ENGLAND. 93 

the topic. No public or private houses I have yet seen can 
compare with them for thorough cleanliness and elegance. 

After a peep at Guildhall, where city feasts are given on a 
great scale, and where the Prince Recent was entertained at 
an expense of a hundred thousand dollars, and Victoria at 
even greater cost, and where Gog and Magog of noted memory 
still are, and in the same room with the monuments to Chat- 
ham, Pitt, Nelson, and Beckford, we looked into and through 
the Mansion House, the residence of Lord Mayor Gibbs, so 
terribly Punched of late; but we were spoiled by the "Con- 
servative," for every thing looked extremely mean and dirty. 

We next rode to the Royal Institution in Albemarle Street, 
one of the best for the diffusion of knowledge in Europe. Mr. 
Faraday, the chemist, is the popular lecturer of London ; it is 
a great favour to get in among the rich and noble who attend 
his course once a week at three o'clock, P. M. He had 
kindly sent us an invitation, which was most acceptable, 
though it threw us out of our proposed visit to Greenwich 
Hospital. As to the theatre or lecture-room, it is the best to 
see and hear in, and the most comfortable I have ever been in. 
Carriages with coronets were setting down their titled pos- 
sessors as we arrived ; about three hundred persons were pre- 
sent, more than half of whom were ladies, old and young, 
many taking notes. The subject was mercury, the course 
being on the metals. As the clock sounded three, the lecturer 
began; I have rarely or never passed so short an hour. His 
manner, his words, gestures, and matter were perfection ; the 
mode in which his difficult experiments were performed, be- 
yond praise ; there was no moment of interruption, and 
scarcely one when he ceased to speak, even while the expe- 
riments were in progress. He froze mercury in a few mo- 
ments by means of carbonic acid gas, which was solidified 
before us by an assistant in one moment ; he also made an 
admirable cast in frozen mercury of Mr. Fuller, (who, we 
were incidentally informed, left the society fifty thousand dol- 
lars,) the cold being one hundred degrees below 0. Ice water 



94 ENGLAND. 

is a real furnace to this cold mercury, as was shown by put- 
ting" the latter in the water, which instantly created a mass 
of icicles around it. I cannot spare space to recapitulate 
more, adding only my warmest expression of admiration at 
the beauty of the language, and the tact of the distinguished 
lecturer. He completely silvered a large looking-glass in as 
little time as I can write about it, and closed his lecture half 
a minute after the clock struck four. 

Having an hour on our way to the lecture, we stopped in at 
the annual meeting of the British and Foreign Anti-slavery 
Society. " Joseph John Gurney, Esq.," as he is called on our 
ticket, was in the chair ; his brother Samuel addressed the 
meeting, and asked the members to give money to the cause. 
Another person spoke against Texas annexation, and asserted 
roundly that the British government was disposed to prevent 
it. A reverend gentleman from Jamaica declared the reason 
that the freed negroes were not better off, or as v^ell as they 
were promised they should be, was because the home govern- 
ment taxed them for every thing they ate and drank so hea- 
vily ! ! I could not but wish that these well-meaning people 
would turn their eyes one moment to the poor I have so lately 
seen in Ireland. 

This is a pretty good day's work for London, and I am. 

Yours ever, &,c. 



ENGLAND. 95 



LETTER XIV. 

London, May, 1845. 

Chiswick gardens — Exhibition — Crowd — Police — Price of admission — 
Splendid scene — Music — The fruits — The company — The nobility— 
The display of flowers — Mrs. Lawrence's tent — Holly hedge — Num- 
ber present — Rain — Draggled visiters — Sir John Renhie's Conversa- 
zione — Civil engineers — The company — Bishop of London — Mr. 
Hallam — Dr. Ure — Dr. Mantell — Sir John's preparations — Model 
room — Inventions — Duke of Wellii;glon and Prince Albert — Dr. Fo- 
thergill's residence — Botanical rarities — The trees — Elizabeth Fry — 
Mr. Everett — Mr. Hacket — The weather — Greenwich Hospital — 
Whitebait dinner — Pensioners — School for boys — Ship on dry land. 

The annual May exhibition of fruits and flowers at that 
model garden at Chiswick, took place to-day. Under favour 
of a member of the Botanical Society, our American party 
sallied forth after lunch at two o'clock; took the outside of an 
omnibus, and drove some six miles through the West End and 
Kensington to the spot. On arriving within a mile or two, 
the streets were lined down the centre with policemen, sta- 
tioned every thirty feet to keep order among the troops of no- 
blemen's carriages, and private conveyances, outriders, and 
men on horseback with servants behind, all flocking to one 
point. Tickets have to be procured some days in advance, on 
an order of a member, to secure them, at the price of a dollar 
and a quarter ; a similar order delayed till to-day brings you 
in a bill of two dollars. We were set down in a spacious 
avenue, with policemen at every step ; in company with an 
orderly crowd, we entered the beautiful precincts, redolent of 



96 ENGLAND. 

flowers and sweets ; a long avenue, bordered by tulips and 
flowers in the open air, brought us in view of the splendid 
scene. Tents, made ornamental, of great extent, greeted the 
eye around, while every where were seen groups of the best 
possibly dressed people, sauntering over a sward of unrivalled 
beauty, and three bands of the Queen's musicians, united, 
were pouring forth the melodies of the modern operas. The 
day was damp, but more genial than any we have experienced. 
Entering a tent, we found ourselves among the fruits raised 
under glass. Peaches, whose skins were most fair, nectarines, 
biaek Hamburgh grapes of the fullest size and colour, pine- 
apples, such as never reach us, strawberries that would asto- 
nish our natives, and melons of good size, but wanting the 
colour given by our sun ; some were of a hybrid kind, with 
skins like a lemon ; even the ripe currants outshone in their 
splendour any similar sight it has been my good fortune to 
visit. 

The stranger here soon discovered that he had got among 
a different class from any he had previously seen in the open 
air ; the dresses of some of the ladies were apparently pre- 
pared for a ball ; others were in rich silks and cashmere ; but 
I will not describe habiliments, for beautiful and beaming rosy 
cheeks were more attractive. The gentlemen were also 
much dressed, white cravats and light pantaloons prevailing. 
The nobility mix among a London crowd of this kind undis- 
tinguished by the mass, but titled people were occasionally 
pointed out to us. The great display of flowers was extra- 
ordinarily beautiful indeed, such as it would be a folly to 
attempt to portray in words. You must get Curtis' or Ed- 
wards' Botanical Magazines, and, looking at their fine flower 
portraits, imagine all their varieties collected at one coup ; 
then your imagination will fail to realize the scene. Azaleas 
of rare beauty and great size vied with each other in colour, 
their arrangement being considered and executed with rare 
felicity. A very remarkable collection of air plants was the 
admiration of all ; but the collected gem of the fair was a tent. 



ENGLAND. 97 

one side of it filled with the rarest plants, from the celebrated 
stoves of Mrs. Lawrence,* who excels in all she undertakes. 
She is the wife of a medical man in full practice in London, 
he having scarcely time to admire the residence near London 
which she has adorned. The most exquisite of her plants 
were Sarcolabiums, Orides odorata, Ericas, Prochesema lati- 
folia, Ixoras, Acumenes picta, &c., in rare perfection. There 
were in the grounds a large Magnolia cordata, yellow, in full 
bloom ; Wistaria sinensis many hundred feet long, trained back- 
wards and forwards on the brick wall ; an Araucaria imbricata 
twelve feet high ; roses incomparably grouped ; in the green- 
house an Aristolochia gigas, the flowers as large as a conch- 
shell; in one place there is a magnificent exhibition of a holly 
hedge, which is the best material for the purpose ever used, 
and which I am surprised has never been adopted in America ; 
also a finely trimmed hedge of yew. Entering another tent, 
the display of orchideous plants would have astounded our 
gardeners. 

It was estimated that five thousand persons were present. 
We sauntered about among the groups of animated and in- 
animate beauty till five o'clock, taking a peep at the grounds 
of the Duke of Devonshire adjoining, and at the June exhi- 
bition to be opened to visiters, the Duke being president — 
when it commenced raining powerfully : such a scampering 
for the tents ! bat these linen textures soon refused to turn 
the pelting shower, and umbrellas had to be raised. Ever 
and anon a discomfited party who had taken shelter under an 
umbrageous tree, arrived at our tent, little parasols hoisted, 
and silk dresses sadly draggled. A blooming beauty on get- 
ting under shelter gave such a look of vexation as she viewed 
her feet, as told me some future husband must look out for 
hard frowns, if not words. We escaped to a carriage and 



* This lady is understood to expend thirty thousand dollars on her 
garden and green-houses; her stove plants are only rivalled by those of 
Mrs. Marryat, the mother of the novelist. 

9 



98 E N G L A N D. 

were home to dinner at seven, all uniting in the expression 
that a voyage would be compensated by this scene alone. 1 
felt but one regret — that those I best loved were not there to 
enjoy with me. 

I tied a white cravat with unusual care in the evening, 
and went at ten o'clock to a conversazione at Sir John Ren- 
nie's. He is president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 
and gives annually two parties to the members, the nobility, 
and ladies. I found the door much besieged by carriages 
arriving ; a range of police again, to pass the company 
through ; was regularly announced from the foot of the stairs 
by a succession of liveries to Sir John's presence ; whence I 
passed into the principal drawing-rooms ; here it was gratify- 
ing to take the hands of several gentlemen whose acquaint- 
ance I had previously been so fortunate as to make. I do not 
design to violate the sanctity of private life in any case, but 
the present being rather a public occasion, may venture to 
name the following public men present. The Bishop of Lon- 
don was conspicuous from the attention paid him ; Mr. Hal- 
lam, author of the History of the Middle Ages, it gave me 
much pleasure to see and hear converse, as well as Dr. Ure, 
now advanced in life. I made the pleasant acquaintance of 
Dr. Mantell, the geologist, and have an appointment to see 
his collection, which is unique. The ladies were dressed in 
the mode, with shoulders rather bare for the weather. Sir 
John, anticipating a very large party, had, with the wand of 
enchantment, extended the second story of his house over the 
garden in a temporary manner, but no one not informed of 
the fact would have been aware of the sudden addition, for it 
was elegantly papered on canvass, chandeliers hung from the 
ceilings, and the furniture of the richest description appeared 
in place, as did also the numerous mirrors, carpets, &c. ; 
while the ceiling appeared to be painted in fresco, though in 
reality it must have been papered. Beneath was a model 
room, to which every thing new and rare in the way of in- 
ventions appeared to have been sent, from the ever-admired 



ENGLAND, 99 

slave, the steam engine, to the newest Talbotypes, eclipsing 
Daguerre, who is so improved upon in certain matters as to 
be quite old, if not forgotten. A guest exhibited a few ex- 
quisite preparations of portions of the human body, mounted 
so as to be perfect, and secured in a liquid which it is sup- 
posed will preserve them indefinitely. He has adapted his 
invention to gold bracelets, breast-pins, &c., much superior to 
cameos ; for instance, a lady's bracelet of massive gold had 
in the centre, under fine glass, a gold-bug of remarkable 
beauty, the antennae and wings as perfect as life and truly 
brilliant. Whether the ladies will adopt so obvious an im- 
provement as nature, remains to be seen. 

The Duke of Wellington and Prince Albert, fully expect- 
ed, had not arrived when I left at near twelve ; previous to 
calling for my Brougham, I visited the refreshment-room, 
where tea, coffee, poor ices, and the usual party preparations, 
which includes some things unknown to us at home, were 
comfortably served. The first visit to such a place has its 
novelties for an American — such as the profusion of waiters 
with liveries and powder ; it must also once be novel to find 

your Brougham called along with " Lady H " or " Lady 

B 's carriage." 

Hard work this London life in the gay season ; I got little 
enough rest last night, but was hard at work again in the 
morning, having to visit my banker, five miles up to the city, 
look about the bookstores, and dine ten miles from home in 
the country, at one of those spots rendered classical to my 
family by the former residence of its friend and correspondent. 
Dr. Fothergill. Its present wealthy owner has around him 
all the elements of human happiness, for besides his large 
possessions, he knows daily the luxury of doing good. I had 
time before dinner to inspect the grounds, consisting of a 
hundred and more acres, where Dr. Fothergill had placed his 
treasures of botanical rarity. I am given, as you know, a 
little to arboriculture, but here my hopes of inspecting great 
tree varieties were more than gratified. Cedars of Lebanon 



100 ENGLAND. 

of one hundred and fifty years' growth to begin with ; then a 
huge real cork tree, forty feet high, with the bark as thick 
as four inches, was a conspicuous object ; a fine magnolia 
(evergreen) and a Salisburia adiantifolia against the house, a 
thicket of old and very rare evergreens, a copper beech, as 
large as any white beech in Pennsylvania, in full glory, all 
planted by the hand of the venerable physician, were visited 
and revisited in my perambulations around the park; the 
green-houses and conservatory are the same used by Dr. F. : 
I will not weary you with recapitulating the names of trees, 
remarking only that the Vv^hole place is eminently in high 
keeping, and the oaks larger and more vigorous than those in 
the London parks, and grouped more tastefully. 

I was here in the vicinity of the residence of Elizabeth 
Fry ; having an introduction, I called at her cottage ornee, 
surrounded by evergreens, and replete inside with every com- 
fort and luxury that she could desire. She walks with difii- 
culty, but attends Friends' meeting, where she is indulged 
with an arm-chair, and but yesterday her fine voice was 
heard vocally addressing her Maker. Her countenance 
beams with intelligence and benevolence. A kind invitation 
to return again has closed, I fear, my personal intercourse 
with this excellent friend of the distressed. 

I went in the evening to pay my respects to our minister, 
Mr. Everett, who sees his American friends one evening 
every week. He is very attentive to his countrymen ;. Mr. 
Hacket came in, highly gratified that he has obtained per- 
mission to perform before the Queen to-morrow evening at 
the Haymarket theatre. Several from our side of .the water 
were present, ladies as well as gentlemen ; a cup of tea, 
(being the seventh meal I have partaken of to-day in my va- 
rious peregrinations among the most hospitable people, in- 
cluding, however, breakfast and tea at our lodgings) closed 
the evening of a long and interesting day. The weather 
continues very wet and by no means genial. 

A trip to Greenwich Hospital and observatory, with the 



ENGLAND. 101 

accompaniment of a whitebait dinner, has agreeably occupied 
one of our mornings. You see an immense series of hospi- 
tals, in one of which Queen Elizabeth was born when it was 
a palace, and one was the palace of Charles the Second ; we 
were present in one room where eight hundred pensioners 
were at dinner, and another of seven hundred ; the poor fel- 
lows (rich in their own estimation) are dressed in a blue 
plain uniform and cocked hats ; each has rations, which the 
married men have the right to carry out of the gates to their 
families in the vicinity ; many availed themselves of it. 
Their sleeping apartments are truly comfortable ; made like 
the berths of a ship, but larger ; each ornaments his own 
with the fruits of his voyages ; — pictures, old china, any 
thing in short that he possesses and which a sailor would 
covet. A school for nine hundred boys, sons of pensioners, 
is attached, a ship being flTic/iore^ on dry land for their prac- 
tice. The chapel and painted room, full of showy battle 
scenes and portraits, pleased us better than the whitebait, to 
the excellence of which we are not yet educated. 

Yours, truly, &c. 



LETTER XV. 



London, May, 1845. 

English tourists in America— Sunday in London — Service at St. Paul's 
— Silver key — Ordination — Sermon — Music — Chauntiug boys — 
Streets on Sunday — Bolt Court — Dr. Johnson's house — The parks on 
the Sabbath— Serpentine River — Wild ducks — Chelsea pensioners — 
Policemen — Goat phaetons — Sheep — Cows ready to be milked — Birds 
— The scene — Satan Montgomery — Ipswich — Thomas Clarkson — 
His dwelling, age, and health, &c. — His autograph — Priscilla Wake- 
field — William Kirby — Cardinal Wolsey's gateway — Evrington's 
shawl warehouse — Cashmere — Prices, &c. 

I DO not attempt to touch upon British politics or politi- 

9# 



102 ENGLAND. 

cians and their doings — a longer residence than mine has 
been, or is likely to be, would be required to convey correct 
information. I have been too much disgusted with the posi- 
tive opinions emanating from the English tourists of a few 
weeks among us, who attempted to pronounce upon a whole 
nation and its destinies, by what they saw upon its surface, 
to dare attempt such a course respecting England, a country 
modified by so many circumstances of history, habit, educa- 
tion, and religion. My efforts are rather directed to portray 
contrasts in manners and habits, and to detail what I see as 
I see it. 

I have passed a whole Sunday in the streets and churches 
of London. Service at St. Paul's Cathedral is one of the 
sights and sounds coveted by strangers. Two of us made our 
way in a carriage early after breakfast this morning to that 
celebrated pile, which I had not yet seen internally. Before 
ten o'clock there was a crowd pouring in at both entrances on 
the sides. We could not tell whether this was as usual or notj 
both being strangers ; but entering with the stream, every 
accessible seat in the choir, except a few far in the rear with- 
out backs, was already occupied. Vergers with gilt staves 
were busy letting people in by doors concealed in the walls 
outside the choir, (itself a small part only of the St. Paul's) ; 
we made application to one, but he said there was no room ; 
recollecting that a silver key unlocked most doors in England 
we made up to a second on the other side, and jingled two 
shillings in his ear; an entrance to* a most comfortable ele- 
vated stall, with every accommodation of red velvet cushions, 
desk, stool, beautifully printed folio books of the service from 
the Oxford press, &c., flew open as if by magic; 

We were not long in discovering that it was an extraordi- 
nary occasion ; the Bishop of London ordained eighteen dea- 
cons, and eighteen deacons he ordained priests, each sepa- 
rately, and each by the imposition of hands ; it was a tedious 
business ; the cathedral was bitter cold, and we were locked 
in. A canon named Dale preached a good orthodox sermon, 



ENGLAND. 103 

addressed to the candidates, touching upon the subjects of 
prayer, faith, the Eucharist, &c. ; insisting that the church 
required daily prayer, however it may have been neglected 
by professors. He explained briefly but impressively the 
essential principles of the English church, from which he de- 
duced the duties of those who were to be ordained, dwelling 
much on personal holiness, which if not essential to the per- 
formance of the service, he declared most important as an 
example to the people ; he pronounced unfaithful ministers the 
worst vipers ever introduced into the world. The music was 
not of a very superior order; as at the Abbey, boys in dirty 
white gowns, their foreheads smoothed up with a brush, while 
the back of their heads is untouched, wriggling and gazing 
about as if mere tools without any sense of religious impres- 
sion, are paraded in singing-desks far out in the chapel, where 
they sing, and chaunt Amen. The priest who read the ser- 
vice was also wandering in mind, to judge from his eye and 
head right below us. We got out at one, but were penned 
off from the body of the cathedral, shown only on week days, 
for a fee. 

The streets at one o'clock were filled with people returning 
from various places of worship — thronged I may say, some in 
holiday dresses and very many in old, worn habiliments, but 
clean. We were hungry and cold, and seeing Bolt Court, 
with a sign " Dr. Johnson's Tavern, steaks, chops, and coffee," 
we lefl the main street and penetrated one of those queer, old 
narrow courts running from the principal great thoroughfares, 
often between every three or four houses. The window of 
the residence of the author of the " Rambler" and the " Vanity 
of Human Wishes," was filled with beef and mutton ; it has 
been much altered in front, being now an extensive second- 
rate eating and lodging-house for strangers. We got a cup 
of coffee in the Doctor's closet, where, no doubt, some of his 
lofty paragraphs were composed, and pursued our researches 
to the parks, coursing St. James's, Green, and Hyde Parks, to 
Kensington Gardens, so called, but in reality a park, in which 



104 ENGLAND. 

stands the old red palace of the same name. This is the 
Sunday afternoon promenade of the people. It has very fine 
old oaks, a greensward of great beauty, the scene rural and 
beautiful in the extreme ; the Serpentine River, half as broad 
as the Schuylkill at the Falls, with an island or tw^o, pene- 
trates it, though its principal waters are in Hyde Park. The 
imitation of a natural lake is perfect. The shores are gravel, 
sand, and shells; wild ducks breed here and take flight in 
winter; swans ride majestically about ; broods of ducklings 
are picking on the grass, while visiters, purposely provided 
with crackers or cakes, are feeding the parents ; some old 
Chelsea pensioners in faded red coats, have brought some bread 
for the same purpose. 

Policemen here, as every where, churches and lectures 
included, are promenading to keep order. Carriages arrive 
along the margin of the Serpentine, and set down the ladies 
for a walk; a pair or two of goats are harnessed to small 
phaetons for children to ride in at twenty-five cents the hour, 
their conductor, a boy, running at their side. Baby children 
not sufiiciently old to retain the ribands in their hands, are 
set upon the vehicle, and away it goes, followed by a pet dog, 
very wet from his excursion in the water. Noblemen's car- 
riages are wending their way in the road outside, to the 
country ; it would be vulgar to be seen here to-day. Many 
sheep are cropping the grass ; further down cows are tied to 
the iron railings ready to be milked for those who desire, for 
a consideration, a fresh glass, A group of Sunday scholars 
have just arrived and are coursing the mead, the grass of 
which is free to every body ; birds in great numbers are sing- 
ing overhead in the branches ; no houses are in sight ; you 
are fairly in the country, though London is all around. Such 
are the London Parks on a fine Sunday. 

After dinner at six, we went to hear a celebrated preacher 
at Percy Chapel ; no less a personage than Satan Montgo- 
mery, author of the epic of that name, better esteemed it 
seems as a preacher than poet; in the latter capacity he 



ENGLAND. 105 

thought to rival Milton, but the critics laughed him down to 
zero. His chapel was intensely thronged when we arrived, 
as is always the case when it is known he will preach. We 
elbowed our way through the crowded door and anteroom, 
where a tall verger was so hemmed in as to appear a fixture; 
but remembering our success at St, Paul's, my friend showed 
him a silver coin which he very willingly took, bade us fol- 
low, and away we worked to the centre of the church, where 
he met a young woman. A wink to her gave information of 
our importance, and we were in a Qioment in an unoccupied 
pew ! to the wonder of the crowds in the aisles who had not 
used the talisman. The service over, Mr. Montgomery as- 
cended the pulpit, far from the walls, so as to be near the 
centre of the church. He is tall, homely, with a large mouth, 
a voice in proportion, and a very rapid delivery. The audi- 
ence was hushed to great quiet the moment he commenced. 
His discourse, one of a series, was marked by an attempt at 
florid poetical diction, little in accordance with a cockney 
mode of omitting the h, and introducing expressions such as 
jest so, &c. The choir consisted of well-trained boys, whose 
music was not agreeable. He is much followed, but we 
thought the congregation was not composed of either the rich 
or fashionable, though in the day it is more so. 

You will be interested to hear of a visit I have just paid to 
a man famous in years past, but who has ceased to occupy of 
late a very prominent position in the public eye, owing to his 
age. I set out yesterday to visit some connexions at Ipswich, 
in Suffolk, reached by fifty miles of rail and twenty of excel- 
lent coaching. Received with that hospitality which can 
only mark the conduct of refined minds, I was driven next 
morning to call on their friend, the venerable Thomas Clark- 
son, residing four miles from Ipswich, on a fine property of 
the Earl of Bristol. The ancient mansion is surrounded by 
a wide moat, as in feudal times; it is spacious and conve- 
nient, well and even richly furnished ; the old gentleman has 
not been out of his chamber for twenty-one weeks. My 



106 ENGLAND. 

friend preceded me to his chamber, announced an American, 
and I was sent for immediately. He was sitting in a spa- 
cious bed-chamber on a sofa with screens around him, the 
picture of age, but I soon found that his mind retained its 
vigour. He quickly touched upon his great topic, slavery, 
inquired as to the prospect of the annexation of Texas, with 
the progress of which I found him well informed, and not 
without hopes that it might fail. He said the British govern- 
ment, with the movements of which he was familiar, had 
honourably declined interference, as something they had 
no business to meddle with. He seemed to think a few 
months more of life was all he could expect or wish for, and 
spoke of probably being soon released from the ties of earth, 
with meekness and Christian hope. My companion, sup- 
posing such a token to carry away would be welcome, placed 
before him a blank sheet of paper, and asked if it would be 
too much trouble to write his name. " Oh dear no," said he, 
" they write to me from all parts of the kingdom for my auto- 
graph, and if it gives them pleasure and me no pain, why 
should they not be gratified '?" Alluding to his almost loss 
of sight, he wrote in a good hand, 

Thomas Clarkson, 
Playford Hall, 

May 21, 1845. Aetatis 86. 

Taking me kindly by the hand, and with some more words 
about America and his old correspondents there, now all de- 
ceased, we parted. His voice is strong and agreeable ; but 
with age he has lost the control of some muscles of his face, 
which makes a painful impression on the beholder. I felt that 
I was certainly parting from a good man for the last time. 

In Clarkson's parlour I saw his fine portrait, the original so 
often copied ; the walls were ornamented with other paintings, 
and a frame covering the freedom of the city of London, with 
a request that he would sit for his bust. There were about 



ENGLAND. 107 

it books and pamphlets on the slave trade, Life of Wilber- 
Ibrce, North American Indian tracts and religious books. 
The house walls are many feet thick, and are covered with 
shrubs, ivy, and apricots ; neat gardening around and on the 
bridge crossing the moat, supplied plentifully with running 
water from a spring. The Earl is his friend and neighbour, 
and it is understood that Clarkson pays a small rent for two 
or three hundred acres, I forget which ; it is mainly under 
the superintendence of Mrs. Clarkson, who keeps all the ac- 
counts of the place, not too well farmed. 

On our return we passed the former residence of Priscilla 
Wakefield ; William Kirby, one of the authors of Kirby and 
Spence's valuable work on Entomology lives hard by, in the 
eighty-seventh year of his age. Wherever you go in Eng- 
land, are places hallowed by the residence of great or good 
people. Cardinal Wolsey was born in Ipswich ; the old gate- 
way of his residence is still standing ; though not erect, it is 
still carefully preserved. Visiting some friends the other 
day at Stoke Newington, I was shown the residence of De 
Foe; also the spot where Dr. Watts lived, the place now 
turned into Abney Park Cemetery, where are fine cedars of 
Lebanon, but an indifferently contrived burial-ground. I was 
told that Sarah Ellis, the authoress, has hired the former resi- 
dence of William Penn at Hodderdon, called Rawdon House, 
where she is about to open a school to teach young ladies 
practical duties. 

To vary my sight-seeing, a friend, on my return to Lon- 
don, took me to the great shawl warehouse of the Evringtons, 
where there is a collection of draperies for ladies exceeding 
any thing elsewhere. We had displayed before our admiring 
view one single shawl, the price of which is seven hundred 
and fifty dollars, made by the poor creatures in the vale of 
Cashmere, who live on nuts and the cheapest food. It is cer- 
tainly a triumph of elegant manufacture. This fashionable 
store had also a few articles of vertu on sale, such as a pair 
of Chinese vases for a thousand dollars, the fellow pair having 



108 ENGLAND. 

just been sent home to a nobleman. Several of Cardinal 
Wolsey's chairs were also here, and an inlaid or molu bureau, 
belonging once to Louis XIV. There were ladies' bracelets 
for two hundred and fifty dollars, a Chinese screen for a like 
sum, with commodities for the affluent innumerable. This 
store is a remarkable exhibition of extravagance in itself, 
being surrounded by looking-glasses, and the huge windows 
having their ceilings of the same material. 

One fairly sickens at the thought of ever enumerating the 
things of interest in and about London. 

Yours, &c., ever. 



LETTER XV L 

London, May, 1845. 

Hints to visiters in London— Royal Antiquarian Society— Royal So- 
ciety — Marquis of Northampton — Dr. Roget — Colonel Sabine — Ma- 
nuscript of Newton's Principia — The Queen and " Royal Consort" — 
The children — Rev. Thomas Hart well Home — Library of the British 
Museum— Its apartments,treasures,manuscripts,authors, early printed 
books, missals— The librarian— Book publishers— Paternoster Row— 
t^nglish gardening — Loddige's palm house — Beauty of English gar- 
dens—Prices of fruit — The Queen at the Haymarket— Mr. Hacket. 

A VISITER in London anxious to view and learn the most he 
can in the limited period allowed him, will find a great eco- 
nomy of time if he begins right. By going too hastily to 
work, he will see superficially and often have to go over 
again, for he will discover he has not seen the half. I have 
been fortunate in this respect generally ; I have found a dispo- 
sition to forward my plans, though very few have time to go 
about with one, and much loss must occur by not having a 
guide to dispose of the day to the best advantage. I have 
been this evening first to the Royal Antiquarian Society, and 
then to the Royal Society at Somerset House. At the first a 



ENGLAND. 109 

paper was read upon some antique spoons, &c., lately found 
four feet below tlie bed of the Thames, and a most elaborate 
pall of needlework and gold was exhibited, three or four hun- 
dred years old, brought from Fishmongers' Hall ; also the 
dagger with which Wat Tyler was killed by Mayor Wands- 
worth. There were some sixty members present, the chair 
being occupied, in the absence of Lord Aberdeen, by Mr. 
Hamilton, author of a book on Egypt. 

The Marquis of Northampton, a most urbane gentleman, the 
President, took the chair of the Royal Society punctually at 
half past eight, only thirty members being present. A new 
" fellow" (F. R. S.) was inducted, after the mace of the House 
of Commons (used by the Speaker in the Long Parliament, 
when Cromwell said, " Take that bauble away") was placed 
before the marquis. A paper on agricultural chemistry was 
read, members were proposed, and then we adjourned to the 
library, were introduced to great men, and had a good cup of 
tea, surrounded by books, portraits of the scientific great, and 
to my pleasure, a superb bust of Mrs. Somerville, by Chantry, 
in his best style. I here was introduced to Dr. Roget, author 
of one of the Bridgewater treatises, Colonel Sabine, Mr. 
Christie, &c. &c. I will whet your appetite further only by 
saying that I here saw the original MSS. of Newton's Prin- 
cipia, with the marks of the printer. It is preserved with the 
extraordinary care it deserves. For all this and a thousand 
kindnesses, I am indebted to my friends the V.'s, of Fenchurch 
Street, whose attentions are untiring. 

Do not suppose that I have been so long in London without 
seeing the Queen and her " Royal Consort." She yesterday 
left London for a few days' visit to the Isle of Wight ; I saw 
her depart in a plain carriage with four horses, outriders, and 
a few mounted soldiers, having a good view of both wife and 
husband, for so they rank, she being head of the menage. As 
she drove off she was putting on her gloves very much as 
another lady would do, looking round upon about a hundred 
gazers, with an air of great ease ; a few hats were raised, but 

10 



110 ENGLAND. 

there was no huzza ; the royal children followed in two four- 
horse coaches, with outriders also, and nurses ; the flag, kept 
flying on Buckingham Palace only when she is at home, was 
struck, and the pageant was over. I have also seen Prince 
Albert in a dashing red coat, enter St. Paul's on the occasion 
of his presiding at the meeting for the Sons of the Clergy. 
Various other opportunities have presented for seeing them, 
but other occupations have been preferred. 

I made the acquaintance, a few evenings since at a literary 
soiree, of the Rev. Thomas Hartwell Home, whose " Intro- 
duction to the Scriptures" you well know ; it is soon to go to 
the ninth edition. He is in middle life, hale and social, with 
a quick manner and exact in his knowledge ; small in stature, 
he is active ; in his kindness he walked at rather a late hour 
to see me into a carriage, showing me his house as well as his 
parish church on the way, but gratifying me in the pursuit of 
one of my hobbies by inviting me to spend a morning with 
him in the library of the British Museum. He has been 
engaged for nineteen years in preparing a catalogue of that 
mammoth collection, from whence I have just returned, highly 
delighted, as you may suppose. It is kept in spacious, elegant, 
and comfortable apartments; one range of rooms is three 
hundred and seven feet in length. There are between three 
and four hundred thousand books — no enumeration of the 
amount is kept ; it would be labour lost. In separate apart- 
ments are Sir Joseph Banks's Library, of 18,000 volumes, 
George the Third's, 75,000 — rooms of prints and maps, the 
mere catalogue of which would astound you. There are the 
Cottonian and Harleian MSS. Near the latter is an old 
deed, written in the year 572 ; the Duke of Wellington's esti- 
mate of the efficient forces under his command, written on the 
back of a letter on a drum-head, just before the battle of 
Waterloo ; and the original of Magna Charta. Here is a case 
of extraordinary books in manuscript, illuminations, &c., 
worth a million of dollars, including the famous Codex Alex- 
andrinus of the 4th or 5th century. A Bible bound in silver 



ENGLAND. Ill 

and set with precious stones, the cover thick and having holy 
relics inserted in a hole in the centre, consisting of a tooth 
and some bones ; it was written in the 8th century. Queen 
Mary's Psalter in elegant silver embroidery; two volumes of 
Philip de Comines' copy of Valerius Maximus, superb beyond 
description ; the celebrated Roman de La Rose ; the original 
of Pope's translation of the Iliad, written on the backs of 
letters for economy ! and on one of which is found the anec- 
dote about the Duchess of Queensbury, the friend of Gay, who 
writes to Pope, " The Duchess was gloriously drunk last 
night." 

Authors are sitting round, some copying fine illuminations, 
and others consulting' books ; thirty attendants are ready to 
wait on applicants, the porters using clever-sized wagons to 
carry the books to and fro. There are comfortable, nay, luxu- 
rious accommodations, for seating one hundred and thirty 
student:? ; as no books can ever be taken out, you may be sure 
of finding what is wanted. My opinion is confirmed by all I 
converse with, that the Philadelphia is the best circulating 
library of English literature in the world. Mr. Home, after 
a laborious tour, turned me over to Mr. Watts, Russian and 
Polish librarian. He kindly took out many more of the great 
treasures of the institution, such as Cranmer's Bible, 1539 — 
Luther's of 1558 ; the French Protestant version, presented to 
Queen Elizabeth, bound in silver embroidery, and truly beau- 
tiful. The library is particularly rich in early printed books; 
I saw and handled the celebrated book rarity, the first ever 
printed about America, by Columbus; it consists of but four 
leaves, but being unique, is priceless: it was translated from 
Spanish into Latin by Leander de Tosco, and printed 1493. 
Here is the first book printed ! the Mayence Bible of 1452 — 
a copy of the Mazarine Bible near the same idate, and equal 
to any book since produced in beauty ; also the very superb 
Mayence Missal, printed in missal type, 1457 ; a Bible printed 
entire in a North American tongue in 1668; Caxton's 
" Game of Chess," extremely rare, being the first book printed 



112 ENGLAND. 

in England, 1472; the first edition of Shakspeare, which 
when received at this library, was in so ill a condition as to 
fall to pieces when handled; every leaf has been encased in 
the thinnest possible tissue paper, though strong ; it is now 
perfect, very legible, and likely so to remain for centuries ; 
the celebrated great edition of Thomson's Seasons, type and 
paper luxurious beyond my previously conceived ideas. 

I dare not trust myself to give a further enumeration; you 
must read old Dibdin, who still haunts these precious shelves 
occasionally, and then open your eyes and come and see. I 
am overwhelmed with the magnificence of the collection, and 
the liberality of a government which keeps up such a source 
of knowledge for those respectably recommended to Sir Henry 
Ellis, the head librarian. One of cur boarders, an American, 
obtained from Sir Henry to-day a ticket to read, for a month. 

I do not find the book publishers communicative ; they do 
not keep the books of each other, though there are a few 
shops like those of Moore, Penington, or Carey and Hart, 
where the variety you require is displayed. Paternoster Row 
is in a mean, narrow street, and the majority of the great 
publishers are now found elsewhere. All the partners, clerks, 
and underlings, have studied some particular department of 
the trade, are complete in it like other Englishmen in their 
several employments, but know nothing out of it, so that I 
am less au courant of what is doing in literature here than 
I am when at home with all the literary periodicals around 
me. 

Several excursions to visit my friends in the neighbour- 
hood have forcibly impressed me with the beauty of English 
gardening. I have seen Loddige's celebrated nurseries, near 
London, and their great palm -house, three stories high, where 
the bamboos and palms of the* East grow to a great size in a 
congenial atmosphere. The Latania Borbonica has attained 
the extraordinary height of forty feet, and is fifty years old. 
Loddige has extensive collections of rare plants, supplying 
the nobility at high prices. The private gardens where 1 have 



ENGLAND. 113 

visited, have fine old yew trees, hollies in prodigious numbers, 
but the landscape-gardener depends most for his effects upon 
the delicate evergreen Portugal laurel, which does not readily 
bear our cold winter. The Laurestinus is hardy here and 
much planted, as is also the Aucuba Japonica, whose colour is 
entirely too sickly to be so much employed. Then the box 
trees and bushes are superb. A little piece of water and 
some rock and shell-work, no matter how small the premises, 
with a fountain to be played at pleasure, are frequent orna- 
ments. In very many houses where I visit, the drawing- 
room opens upon a fine conservatory, gay with calceolarias 
and flowers of colours assorted for effect, a looking-glass at 
the end heightening the general beauty. A grotto, too, of 
stones and shells, permanently built, and lighted with coloured- 
glass windows, you will probably find in your winding walk, 
and a gold-fish family are sporting in the fountain basin ; wall- 
fruit overlooks a strawberry-bed, on two sides of a hollow 
deep-cut, so as to have a north and south aspect to ripen the 
fruit in succession. We have had at dinner parties these 
fine berries, raised under glass, the fruit large, but not espe- 
cially fine flavoured. Did I tell you that we saw at Covent 
Garden early in May peaches selling at ten dollars the dozen, 
strawberries twenty cents the ounce, and black Hamburg 
grapes at three dollars the pound'? 

Can you wonder after all this that I am constantly on the 
gape with admiration, that I find so much differing from home, 
and that I cannot yet get away from London 1 

Some of our boarders had a good look at the Queen the 
other evening at the Haymarket Theatre, where she went 
with her husband very quietly and unobserved by many in 
the house, to see Mr. Racket play Mons. Mallet, a point he 
has been long anxious to bring about. She looked very com- 
fortable, behaved much as other ladies do, and enjoyed the 
play. I hear that the "Americans" used their opera glasses 
at her, having secured a seat for the purpose, rather more 

10* 



114 ENGLAND. 

freely than royalty is accustomed to, or than etiquette permits 
to a crowned head ; " Who's afraid 1 ! ! says Jonathan." 

Yours ever. 



LETTER XVII. 

London, May, 1845. 

Barclay's Brewery — Its extent — The vats — Value of one — Horses — 
Naked men — Boilers — Malt bins — Cats — Burying-gronnd — The de- 
scendants of William Penn — Stoke Park — Trees and deer — Proposed 
visit to Oxford — Lady Grenville's place at Dropmore — Pinetum — 
Auraucaria — Douglass pine. 

Barclay's Brewery, celebrated the world over, is such a 
curiosity that I have been tempted to visit it under favour of 
an introduction from one of the family owning it. Though 
statistics are not much in my way, you shall have the benefit 
of the few notes I thought it worth while to make on the 
spot : as it has been greatly enlarged latterly, perhaps they may 
possess novelty. The whole establishment covers fifleen 
acres ; we saw one hundred and eighty vats, each containing 
from eleven hundred to three thousand barrels; they are 
thirty-three feet in height ; one thirty-six feet across at top, 
the bottom forty-three feet, had in it the enormous amount of 
three thousand five hundred barrels ; the weight of iron in 
the hoops alone is seventeen tons, the eight bottom ones weigh- 
ing no less than one ton four hundred weight ; it is large 
enough to drive a carriage and six horses into ; it will con- 
tain four thousand barrels of imperial stout, and its liquid trea- 
sure is worth eighty thousand dollars I Father Mathew's 
gimlet would lessen its value. There are stables for one 
hundred and eighty-seven of the enormous horses employed 
for delivery, each horse worth three hundred dollars; one 
Utile fellow we measured, and found his height to be full 



ENGLAND. 115 

eighteen hands, or six feet ; a steam engine finds full employ- 
ment in breaking up their food. 

In one place we saw men in vats handling the hot hops, as 
nearly naked as savages. In one vat was 1360 bushels of 
malt ; a copper boiler is so large that forty-five men have 
dined in it comfortably ! it will contain 4200 barrels of beer. 
Here are conduits half a mile in length, rail-roads, hoppers, 
steam engines, &c., enough to confuse one. Thirty tons of 
coal a day are consumed. The malt-bins will contain sixteen 
hundred thousand bushels, worth two millions and a quarter 
of dollars ; sixty great cats are kept to destroy the mice. 
Fifteen hundred barrels of ale are made daily ; it is cooled in 
summer by curious refrigerators. There is even a burying- 
ground for the men who die, but for this there is no longer 
room ; the space is wanted, the temperance men would say, 
to make poison for others. The brewery was partially burnt 
in 1832, but precautions are now taken so that the whole can 
be flooded in a very short time. To look at the Thames water 
you would not say it was a desirable article to drink ; but the 
people here seem infatuated with beer; wherever you go you 
see huge signs, "Truman, Hanbury, and Buxton's Entire," 
and so of other brewers, while the beer is on every dinner 
table ; and beer money is allowed to servants and soldiers, 
whether they spend it for that purpose or not, it is so settled 
in the contract. The great London brewers own very many 
of the beer-hoiises^ and thus insure the sale of their own liquor. 

Oxford, May, 1845. 

I received the other day a kind invitation to visit the pre- 
sent head of the family of the founder of Pennsylvania, and 
his lineal descendant, Granville John Penn, Esq., at Stoke 
Park, near Windsor, where I have been most hospitably en- 
tertained; as the name and family of this gentleman interests 
many of the descendants of our first settlers, and as we Penn- 
syivanians consider the name as public property, Mr. Penn, I 
feel assured, will not deem it an invasion of the private hearth 



116 ENGLAND. 

if I tell you who constitute the present descendants of the 
peaceful good Quaker. Thomas Penn, who, with his brother 
Richard, was joint Proprietor of Pennsylvania, married Lady 
Juliana Fermer ; his son John built the present Stoke new 
manor house, a superb mansion, in the Italian style, the for- 
mer large dwelling, the residence of Sir Edward Coke, having 
been mostly pulled down. He died without issue, and the 
entail gave it to Granville, his brother, who died only eight 
months since, leaving it to the tenure of his eldest son, Gran- 
ville John Penn, Esq., the present possessor, aged about forty- 
three ; he is much interested about us in Pennsylvania, respect- 
ing which I had the pleasure of answering numerous pertinent 
questions. His mother and tvvo sisters reside with him, and 
I met there his intelligent brother William Peon ; an inter- 
mediate brother, Thomas Gordon Penn, is in orders. 

The manor of Stoke consists of one thousand acres, four 
hundred of which is in a park, very finely wooded, where 
ranges considerable game, including two hundred and fifty 
deer; here reigns that rural ease enjoyed by the wealthy 
English in so very remarkable a degree. The noble trees are 
venerable ; every luxury of wood, lake, fine viev/s, an excel- 
lent and large library, await the fortunate guest. Windsor 
Castle and Forest are seen through numerous beautiful vistas 
from the library, drawing-rcoms, extensive pleasure grounds, 
and park. The collection of family pictures, historical por- 
traits, and statuary, is highly interesting. The original pic- 
ture of Penn^s Treaty with the Indians, by West, ornaments 
one of the drawing-rooms. 

On my mentioning a wish to visit Oxford, Mr. Penn, who 
is a graduate of Christ's College of that University, was kind 
enough to insist upon being my escort; we passed by rail to 
that celebrated seat of learning, a distance of forty miles, in 
less than two hours, having first paid a visit to Dropmore, the 
garden seat of Lady Grenville, where is presented a fairy 
scene, the creation of Lord Grenville and his widow, of sur- 
passing elegance and taste. Her pinetum, and grounds gene- 



E XGL AND. 117 

rally, excel in the beauties of nature, presenting some of those 
extraordinary exhibitions of old beech and oak trees, which in 
no country can be rivalled ; they have braved the breeze for 
several hundred years; their gnarled and knotted trunks are 
a study for a painter, especially those situated in what is called 
Birnham woods. Her ladyship has the largest Auraucaria 
Imhricata in England, being already twenty-one feet in height. 
This tree promises to become the greatest ornament of Eng- 
lish scenery yet introduced. The great Douglass pine, which 
attains the height of three hundred feet, has here already 
reached forty-five feet ; it is the most lovely vegetable pro- 
duction I have ever gazed on.* 



LETTER XVIII. 

Oxford, May, 1845. 

Oxford — The Colleges — Their construclion — Chrisl's Chapel — Burton, 
author of the Anatomy of Melancholy — His bust the home of a robin 
— Dr. Pusey — His appearance — His benevolence — Dinner at the no- 
bleman's table — A wine party — Angel inn— Pictures— Statues — Li- 
brary — Kitchen — Boating — Death — The twelve Cfesars — Universisy 
press — Botanic garden. 

Oxford presents a scene not readily described ; it is a city 
of colleges, as you know, interspersed with comfortable, neat 
dwellings for families. The colleges are constructed of a soft 
stone, and their external walls seem rapidly going to decay in 
every part, though some have stood the climate for four hun- 
dred years. The decay adds to the appearance of antiquity. 
When the debris has extended too far, the external coating of 
the wall is replaced by new stone, whose yellow tinge is very 

* A noble double colonnade of Cedars of Lebanon here is worth 
many guineas to have seen. 



118 ENGLAND. 

beautiful. It yields to a cane almost as readily as the 
Bath brick, and the wonder is how it remains as permanent 
as it does. 

Our first visit was to Christ's Church Chapel, where is the 
effigy and shrine of St. Frideswide, who died in 740, ten years 
after the erection of the chapel. The author of the Anatomy 
of Melancholy is buried near her; his bust overlooks the old 
confessional above her monument, a Latin inscription informing" 
the spectator that having cast his horoscope, and not dying 
the day he had fixed upon, he killed himself* The bust was 
for foar successive years the home of a robin, who built in it 
and raised her broods, finding access to the chapel through a 
broken pane ; but old Burton's plaister face and head are now 
in pretty good order with paint ; the whole chapel is very 
neat. We afterwards attended evening service there, partly 
to get a sight of the celebrated Dr. Pusey, whom we saw 
leave his cloister, in white and red, walk with eyes nearly 
closed, and unobservant of the scene around, to the door. He 
is a young-looking man, bearing on his mind, to all appear- 
ance, a load of responsibility, thus personating what yoa would 
expect in the founder of a sect. Varied trials have marked 
his life, such as the loss of an amiable wife and child ; but 
most especially is he known to feel his suspension from preach- 
ing before the University. He is much esteemed for his 
kindness, visiting the sick and feeble ; one young man, now 
lying at the point of death in a consumption, receives his daily 
visits, prayers, and consolation, though he is only the son of 
one of the porters of the college. The father himself told me, 
with tears, how much his visits were esteemed. 

* The porter here could not refrain from showing his knowledge of 
Eatin ; he kindly translated for us, with cockney accent, old Burton's 
inscription. Humouring his vanity, we asked several other similar fa- 
vours, but he had only acquired enough m " do the Burton." He after- 
ward showed us some water-colour drawings, which he said were 
painted before the iiivenlion of hoyle, not speaking by the card, but 
of oil. 



ENGLAND. 119 

My friend now left me in the Radcliffe Library, to call on 

his cousin and ward, Lord P 1, who kindly insisted upon 

our diningf at the nobleman's table in the grand hall of Christ's 
Church College : this young gentleman is expecting his de- 
gree, and soon will take his seat in the House of Lords. 

The commoners, masters, &c., were seated when we en- 
tered the great dining-hall; marching up through a long line 
of grooms, we found ourselves at a table of distinction at the 
far end, raised a few steps above the others, thus overlooking 
the scene, which was one of perfect order. The noblemen's 
table is better served, and better provided than the others ; 
for a college dinner it was excellent — a written bill of fare, 

and good cooking, with ample variety. Lord D n was 

my opposite neighbour. It may be as well to record my sur- 
prise at hearing the replies of the servants to these youthful 
lords. *' Yes, mj lord ; certainly, my lord" — " No, my lord," 
and so on. This we heard repeated in the street by Lord P.'s 
boatman, whom we met, and by all who approached. The 
dinner over, we adjourned to his lordship's rooms, where a 
few of his friends joined us, to fruit and wine. Another tour 
of inspection of quadrangles, chapels with the finest old 
painted glass windows and antique ornaments, towers, sta- 
tues, gardens, college-walks, as green as green could be, 
sent us tired to bed at the Angel Inn, an excellent house, 
the Turkey carpets of which were purchased on the occasion 
of its being occupied by Queen Adelaide and suite. The 
rooms retain the names of the occupants carefully labelled on 
brass plates. We were so fortunate as to get apartments 
once occupied by high-born maids of honour. 

I saw so many fine pictures by the old masters, in Oxford, 
that I dare not commence an enumeration. Statues of Locke 
and others, portraits of founders, dignitaries, deans, states- 
men, and warriors, educated at each college, are paraded at 
every possible turn, till the mind refuses to retain their names. 
The library of Christ's Church College contains 130,000 
volumes; its walls, window-casings, book-closets, and floor, 



120 ENGLAND. 

are all of oak, which has remained unpainted and unvarnished 
for one hundred and eight years. 

It is not to be expected that I could leave Christ's College, 
without viewing- the kitchen, whose groined high roof and 
roasting apparatus you remember, in the coloured pictures of 
Oxford. The reality quite warrants the colouring. 

Boating is a favourite amusement of the young gentlemen 
here ; two were drowned in the Isis, the night before last ; 
having been out till midnight, and the river being swollen, 
one fell overboard, it is supposed, from the very low sides of 
the frail machine, and the other, in his efforts to save his 
companion, shared the same watery death. It excites more 
attention in the London newspaper of this morning than it 
does here. 

Bells are ringing from one minaret or other every five 
minutes in this strange old town; the heads of the twelve 
Caesars, there being sixteen of them, with moss for hair, 
without noses, paraded in front of one of the colleges, have a 
very undignified look, but the general air of the city is good 
and cleanly. The Oxford University press and store claimed 
a share of our time. Afler making an arrangement with the 
head librarian of the Bodleian Library to receive the guiding 
care of a sub the next day, we continued our examination of 
various points of interest, the Botanic Garden, Brazennose, 
Maudlin, Balliol, St. John's, St. Mary's, and other colleges, 
in all of which we were most courteously received and con- 
ducted by their inmates. We proceeded to make some pur- 
chases of characteristic books and prints, and retired more 
fatigued than ploughmen. 

Yours, &c. 



ENGLAND. 121 



LETTER XIX. 

Oxford, May, 1845, 

Oxford — Bodleian Library — Manuscripts — Uliistrating Burn«t and Cla- 
rendon— Posting to BIef?beim — Titian's gallery — The house — Pic- 
tures—Present Duke of Marlborough — Tapestry, &c, — Private gar- 
dens — Artificial water — ^Trees— Deer — Preserves — Gravel walks — 
Hereditary possessors — The Duke's column — Rosamond's well — The 
weather — Woodstock — Return to London — Ignorance respecting 
America — Anniversaries — The season — .Imitations — London docks — 
Wine — Tasters — Merchandise — Revenue from tobacco — Cigars — 
Wealth — Newspapers — Queen's drawing-ro©m — Review — Outside 
view of the pageant — The people — The scene in the Park — Coach 
of the Speaker-— Conclude to sail for France. 

An account of Oscford m^itutions, its usages and neighbour- 
liood, should of itself fill a volume, I do not mean to trouble 
jou much with details of its heads of halls, heads of colleges, 
professors, scholarships, or university terms, here constitut- 
ing a W'orld in which to be distinguished, is rewarded, after 
"death, by hanging up your portrait, or placing your bust ; or, 
inayha,p, by only writing a cold epitaph. 

The Bodleian Library has the air of an institution exten- 
sively used and rapidly increasing; the rooms are spacious, 
and they contain over 200,000 volumes, many of great rarity 
and age. We had the treasures of old illuminated MSS. 
freely placed before us, and were extremely gratified with 
the inspection of many most superior specimens; in some 
the artist's hand is apparent, and the colours are perfect. 
A catalogue of book rarities would scarcely be read, — I 
therefore confine myself to one single specimen. Mr. and 

11 



122 ENGLAND. 

Mrs. Sutherland, some years since, took the folio editions 
of Burnet's Own Times, and Clarendon's Rebellion, five 
volumes in all, and illustrated them by collecting and adding 
every known engraving, or map, or plan of the period, that 
could be procured for love and money ; the result is, that the 
two works of only five volumes, now number fifty-seven, of 
great weight and size ! ! Not content with having the per- 
fect portraits, they collected successfully the proofs taken by 
the artists while each engraving was in progress — and then 
they added impressions from the same plates when they had 
become worn out. Such labour is no doubt engaging and 
agreeable ; to a certain extent, also, it is useful. 

We procured a posting-coach at our inn, and galloped oflT 
merrily for Blenheim, the noble gift of the British nation to 
the great Duke of Marlborough. The property consists of 
twenty-nine hundred acres, all but eighty of which is in 
parks and gardens of the rarest beauty. You enter by a 
fine portico, and a gentlemanly person conducts you to the 
famed gallery, where are shown the pictures of gods and god- 
desses, painted by Titian, and presented by the King of Sar- 
dinia to the first Duke. To say they are nude, would hardly 
convey an idea of the exhibition; very fine pictures they 
certainly are, but few Americans would dare to have them 
in their possession. From thence you go through the great 
hall, and many superb rooms splendidly adorned with the 
works of the masters, with marble statuary, gilding, and rich 
furniture, to the noble library, coated with marble, and fitted 
up in a style of magnificence that our people would not 
allow, even to their greatest hero, and I trust never will. 
One of the suites of rooms measures four hundred feet from 
end to end ; before you have had time to examine in detail, 
the greatest names in art have been so often thundered in 
your ear, that you " give it up," taking care, however, to 
stop before Carlo Dolce's Madonna, and a Raphael, for which, 
it is said, one hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been 



ENGLAND. 123 

offered. A visit to such a gallery helps onward a little your 
education in paintings. 

The portrait of the present Duke hangs in one of the 
rooms, representing a good-looking rosy-faced man. He 
came into possession very lately to an encumbered estate, 
and soon afterwards lost his wife, for whose death the ser- 
vants and the chapel are in black. 

A singular saloon, painted all round with figures of all 
rations in characteristic costumes — great masses of tapestry 
representing Marlborough's battles — cabinets of ivory, and 
ebony, and pearl— a head of Alexander the Great, found at 
Herculaneum — the monument in the chapel, by Reysbach, 
which cost j£30,000 — the gold and crimson furniture, might 
well occupy a letter each in their description, but it is diffi- 
cult to convey a correct idea of these things, their extent 
and grandeur. 

We procured a view of the private gardens, consisting of 
only seven hundred acres! The utmost attention has been 
paid to planting for a very long series of years ; great per- 
fection has consequently been attained. The American ama- 
teur of landscape gardening may here take a few lessons on 
a large scale ; for, to have every thing in proportion, there 
are two hundred and sixty acres of water artificially formed, 
though so naturally is it introduced into the landscape, that a 
visiter might suppose it had always held the same posi- 
tion. Swans besport themselves in these elegant lakes and 
streams, while you may sit down and admire the scenery, 
from very numerous china benches and stools, under trellises 
of roses in hundreds of varieties, or under weeping oaks and 
ashes, copper beeches, — but crowning the whole, the great 
cedars of Lebanon ; here are found the largest in Europe. 
Throw in an enormous cascade, and dream that you are in 
elysium ; if you possessed all this you would not wish to die. 
Three hundred men are employed, there being among them 
twenty regularly bred gardeners. 

We next called our postilion, and drove round the entire 



124 ENGLAND. 

grounds, accompanied by a ranger on horseback, to point out 
the beauties and remarkable localities. We passed the former 
residence of the witty Wilmot, Earl of Villiers, now con- 
verted to the use of the keeper, who has under his charge 
two thousand one hundred and fifty deer, among them 
twenty-four of the red species, immense numbers of phea- 
sants, and other game : there are large preserves where they 
breed unmolested. Some of the old trees here are most 
remarkable : one oak is shown to which tradition assigns the 
age of sixteen hundred years; it measures thirty-five feet 
round the trunk; a considerable birch-tree is growing in 
one of the decaying crotches, fifteen feet from the groun<l. 
" Capability'^ Brown, who laid out these grounds, is reported 
to have said, that the Londoners would never forgive him for 
exceeding the beauty of the Thames hy his water and trees. 
Among his extravagances may be mentioned, a drive of two 
miles in an artificial valley; there are sixteen miles of 
gravel walks to be kept in order. The late duke, in his 
extremity for want of money, commenced cutting the wood 
for sale, but an injunction stopped him. These hereditary 
possessors have no right to cut more than is necessary for 
repairs. Thinking of the regular succession of heirs, often 
four or five in a few years, and comparing their lives with 
those of the trees, it seems as if they only came, took a look, 
and died. 

The great column in the park, commemorative of the deeds 
of the Duke, is as high as our Christ Church steeple, having 
on top a statue of the hero of Blenheim, twelve feet in sta- 
ture ; the base is covered with long inscriptions. Rosamond*s 
well, near by, still furnishes the best water in the vicinity. 
I forgot to mention that the house and offices occupy seven 
acres. Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect, has been much 
criticised for some of the details, but it must be admitted the 
pile is grand, even to magnificence. The affairs of the pre- 
sent Duke, the sixth, if I remember aright, are more pros- 
perous than those of his father. 



ENGLAND. 125 

We made as much of our time at Blenheim as possible, 
but a day is not sufficient to see its pleasure-grounds, and 
park. One important matter on visiting it, is not to go on a 
rainy day. The first very fine sun that has shone upon me 
in England, greeted us here, and strange to say, shone out 
in splendour till near evening, so that my recollections of 
Blenheim are bright and agreeable. 

The town of Woodstock borders the Park, and Cumnor is 
seen in the distance. Of course you buy a few pair of Wood- 
stock gloves on the spot, at prices equal to those in London ; 
there is something, however, in association, and one likes to 
have Sir Walter Scott at their fingers'* ends. 



London, Jane 1, 1845. 

Returning to Oxford, we employed the remainder of our 
time in the inspection of those points of interest previously 
unseen, in conversation with some of the intelligent pro- 
fessors, settled a bill in which Turkey-carpets and silver 
seemed to have mingled, took the rail at three, and fulfilled 
a dinner engagement in London, comfortably, at six. 

Return to London is extremely annoying, after the peace- 
ful quiet of Stoke Park, and the beauties of Blenheim. 
There is much to see, it is true ; you are surrounded by the 
great and the good, and the clever, but also by a crowd, so 
dense, that pushing through it resembles the efibrt to save 
yourself from drowning; you are less than nobody — nothing; 
the scale of existence is so large, that if it is desirable to the 
friends of any great man, in any country, county, or town of 
the known world, to have the conceit taken out of him, let 
him be sent forthwith to London. Thomas Clarkson said to 
me, he feared all his American correspondents were dead ; 
" let me see," he added, " wasn't there one Rush once in 
your country, and is he dead too?" meaning Dr. Benjamin 

11* 



126 ENGLAND. 

Rush.* So in London they think and know Just about as 
much of an individual State in America, as we do about 
Hayti ! and not a bit. more. Most persons I have met, have 
not heard that our State paid her February interest, and 
never will hear it, because they bave^ to them, more impor- 
tant matters under consideration. 

The long^er one stays in London the more does one find to 
see, and may I add, the more disposed do you feel to run 
away from it to some less bustling- place, where you can visit 
what is worthy of observation without being so annoyingly 
intermingled with crowds crowded on crowds. I am still 
here, notwithstanding those companions whose society I 
coveted have flown to summer skies. To account for this 
delay in smoky London, it will, perhaps, be necessary to say 
that the present month is the season when the anniversaries 
of various prominent societies are principally held ; that, io 
short, what with Parliament in session, the spring meetings 
and anniversaries of religious and benevolent societies, the 
Free Trade Bazaar, Opera, every thing, this is the season. I 
have found many friends disposed to aid an observer and 
stranger; the penny-post is making intimate acquaintance 
with my lodgings every " delivery," generally sending up 
notes and tickets of invitation for ensuing days, enough to 
puzzle a man familiar with London, and therefore calculated 
to distract a stranger. I have had cards for various meetings 
of the Royal Society, Royal Institution, Conyersaziones, for 
the Ethnographical Society, for the Library of the British 

* The literary reacJer "will recall the following anecdote from Horace 
Walpole's Letters to the Miss Berry^s: *' When I was very young, and 
in the height of the opposition to ray father, my mother wanted a large 
parcel of bugles; for what use I forges. As they were ihen out of 
fashion, she could get rtone. At last she was told of a quantity in a 
little shop in an alley in the city. We drove thither; found a great 
stock; she bought it, and bade the proprietor send it home. He said 
' Whiiher?' 'To Sir Robert WalpoleV He asked coolly, 'Who ia 
Sir Robert Walpole?'" 



ENGLAND. 127 

Museum, the London Institution, for the examination of the 
boys at Christ's Hospital, numerous dinner invitations, which 
I decline whenever I can, for they consume so much time; 
breakfast, tea, and so on. I should not enumerate these, 
except as an evidence that great kindness is still extended to 
citizens of America. I came away from home in the most 
hurried manner, almost without letters, and yet no obstacle 
not surmountable has been presented to my obtaining a sight 
of whatever I desired. As to the Queen's drawing-room, not 
being in a hurry, I did not mention the subject to Mr. Everett 
till it was too late to be presented, and 1 was not sorry to 
learn that the period was over ; so we have not this trouble 
of time and expense to encounter. 

A visit to the London Docks is a fatiguing operation ; a 
kind friend who knows the ways of the place accompanied 
us, having provided himself with that important document, 
an order to taste the wines. The dock we visited is not the 
largest, but probably contains as much in value as any other. 
There are one thousand six hundred pipes of wine in the 
Crescent vaults alone, and five thousand above ; in the port 
of London there are now in dock one hundred thousand casks 
of various sorts. A vat for mixing wines in the Crescent 
will contain ten thousand two hundred gallons ; here old and 
new are mingled. In matters of temperance the British na- 
tion is far behind us. We saw a number of the professional 
tasters hanging about ; one at least, I can vouch for it, has a 
peculiar discoloration of the nose. With lighted links we 
traversed this underground world, and then emerged to the 
enormous warehouses above ; the construction of the whole 
is a triumph of ingenuity and strength. 

In the w^arehouses great masses of ivory tusks are en- 
countered, wax, tea, cork, sugars in quantity beyond your 
previously conceived ideas ; the very drippings from the 
hogsheads would be a snug fortune ; this black liquid is care- 
fully swabbed up from under foot and purified. It is calcu- 
lated that fifty millions of pounds sterling worth of goods are 



128 ENGLAND. 

now in dock, occupying no less than one hundred and sixty 
acres; twelve hundred houses were pulled down to construct 
the London Dock alone ; there are three others still larger. 
We inspected rooms full of silk in a raw state, having in 
them three thousand one hundred and fifty bales, brought 
from Turkey, China, Persia, and Italy, and, assorted into co- 
lours ready for the English manufacturer. One single room 
contained one thousand five hundred large bales. The rooms 
containing Tuscan straws ready for plaiting, were very 
attractively neat. We saw half an acre of cinnamon I 

The revenue derived from tobacco is enormous ; we were 
most kindly shown through the vast structures cotitaining the 
raw as well as the manufactured article ; you may inspect, if 
you please, twenty thousand casks, in warehouses covering 
five acres, on which, with the cigars near by, there will be a 
revenue of thirty millions of dollars ; there are now in Lon- 
don thirty thousand hogsheads ; it is supposed that about as 
much more in value, in the shape of cigars and manufactured 
weed, is smuggled annually. The duty on cigars is 9s. and 
6d. per pound ; a thousand cigars may weigh nine pounds, so 
that the duty on cigars of every quality is only twenty dol- 
lars per thousand ; they are sometimes retailed of the best 
quality at eighteen cents each, or one hundred and sixt)^ dol- 
lars the thousand ; a few belonging to the estate of the Duke 
of Sussex, sold, after his death, for two hundred dollars per 
thousand : smoking is quite the fashion, but the expensive 
pleasure has to be paid for ; much very inferior tobacco is 
employed ; this you ascertain when riding in omnibuses, 
which people enter after a shocking whiff. The poor are 
content with a little pinch in a pipe. The plant would grow 
well in Ireland where it has been tried, but the revenue must 
be had to be expended in gewgaws for royalty, and so forth, 
and its culture has been prohibited ! 

London is the place for large figures, either of bullion or 
other articles. The more you inspect the place, the more 
apparent does it become that she is like the sun drawing up 



ENGLAND. 129 

water, sucking into her vortex the products of the whole 
world. More gold is now here than was ever known ; more 
goods of all kinds are imported and exported, more large for- 
tunes are acquired than ever before ; there is more extrava- 
gance, and, let me add, more poverty ; as the facilities for ac- 
quiring great wealth are multiplied by commerce and inven- 
tions, the few are elevated while the tendency on the mass 
is to depress it. The people do not know what their rulers 
are doing, and are not aware of the mode of emancipation. 
How should they be ] The London Times costs fifty dollars 
a year. It is " taken in" at our boarding-house for an hour a 
day! and it serves the many English residents who get a 
glance by turns, and often not once a week. I was so dis- 
gusted with this paltry system, and found it so impossible to 
know what was going on around me, or what measure Par- 
liament was discussing, that I ordered the Standard to be 
subscribed for during my stay. At the end of the week a bill 
comes in for sixty-two cents, while it contains less matter 
than many of your penny sheets. In Ireland I saw no news- 
papers except in the houses of the rich. The tendency of all 
this, with the absence of a government system of education, 
is most evidently seen, and keeps the poor in extreme illite- 
racy and ignorance. 

As to the manner in which the money of this realm is 
spent, we had a rather striking specimen yesterday. The 
Queen held a drawing-room, on the occasion of her birthday. 
I determined to witness the oatside show. An inspection of 
the household troops took place at ten, at the Horse Guards ; 
no discipline could be superior, the infantry being reduced to 
the order of machines ; on such occasions a few poor people 
raise up platforms of suitable solidity, where you get a stand 
for sixpence, and view the scene, enlivened by the presence 
of the Duke of Wellington and Prince Albert, names which 
you must be prepared to become very familiar with. The 
band, in which I counted nearly fifty drums, was excellent, 
particularly in the performance of the march in Norma. The 
large black horses on which the guards are mounted, exceed 



130 ENGLAND. 

in beauty and uniformity every thing^ of the kind. Leaving 
this pageant, we crossed with a great crowd to St. James's 
Park, and up to Buckingham Palace, making our observa- 
tions as we leisurely pursued our way, upon the people com- 
posing the hourly increasing crowd Whenever we had an 
opportunit}?", we entered into conversation with the best dressed 
or most intelligent-looking. They knew where they were, 
certainly, but as to any knowledge of what was to take place, 
they were surprisingly ignorant; the newspapers are not 
given to telling what is to be ; if they were, the crowds that 
would assemble would exceed all control. It had been simply 
announced that a drawing-room was to be held ; a pageant 
was expected, and two hundred thousand people of the middle 
and lower classes assembled, not one of whom knew, as far 
as we could discover, from former experience or from descrip- 
tion, at which gate the Queen would enter St. James's ; so 
we were left to our own judgment. 

By twelve o'clock a host of greasy men and women were 
on the ground with old chairs, tables, and boards, and had 
placed them along the line between the two palaces; this 
we thought no doubt was the place to see ; we paid for seats 
sixpence; the sun broke out genially, and we rested; it 
rained in half an hour, and we huddled under an old oak; at 
one, great armies of policemen appeared, overthrew our seats, 
and assisted in pitching the whole of this paraphernalia, 
brought at great labour from considerable distances, over an 
iron railing into another walk ; so we asked questions of the 
police, and of a guard in uniform pacing before a gate, and 
they told us where the Queen would enter ; that we might 
stand close by up a lane, and there we stood ; presently old 
chairs were stealthily brought in by more greasy people, and 
as I had got correct information I hired an old decrepid stool, 
not quite satisfied that I was not in a ludicrous position, wait- 
ing a sixpenny gape at a Queen. In twenty minutes another 
body of police arrived and ordered us over the way ; there 
was another crush of old chairs. We now took station where 
we saw the best-looking ladies ; the police backed us up to a 



ENGLAND. 131 

certain line of gutter, where we were, they said, in the best 
position ; they humoured the crowd with kind words, acting 
efficiently but gently. In fifteen more minutes, guns were 
fired, announcing that the procession was in motion, when 
the horse-guards backed their enormous black animals agamst 
our august republican persons ; amid the cries of oh ! oh ! 
from the ladies, we fell back six feet, and had to look be- 
tween the horses, the way intercepted by the great boots 
and the trappings. The nobility soon began to pass, dressed 
to the extreme of possible dressing ; some gentlemen with 
their plumes, &-c., on the seats before them; the ladies looked 
very blooming ; there must have been a mile of carriages, the 
gayest liveries and cocked-hats, plumes, red-silk clocked 
stockings, and as grotesque as a Sandwich islander could de- 
sire. Sometimes came a coach with three fellows, all over 
gold lace, hanging on behind by gold cords ! At length the 
Queen came, drawn by only two great cream-coloured horses,/ 
nearly resembling elephants in size. All around us remarked 
that she loolied angry, but the view I had was so momentary 
as not to enable me to confirm it. The Prince appeared per- 
fectly composed, as he had done at the inspection. 

This is the way the pageant is looked upon by the people ; 
they must be surrounded by military and police, and though 
allowed to see under such disadvantages, they know nothing ; 
not one around us could name an individual of the nobility. 
Walking slowly away, we encountered the ludicrous coach 
of the Speaker of the House of Commons, slowly poking along 
with a great figure-head sticking out in front, the whole gilt 
all over, and made in the style of the day of Louis Quatorze. 
The poor Speaker, victimized in it, looked funny enough, and 
we laughed outright ! ! I went home and slept from very 
weariness of body and spirit. 

The weather continues damp and cold, like our April, so 

we have concluded, after making various engagements to be 

fulfilled on our return, to sail to-morrow to the sunnier skies 

of France, via Havre. 

Yours as ever. 



FRANCE. 



LETTER XX. 



Rouen, June, 1845. 



A letter from under the sun — Passage to France — A real John Bull — 
Dover and Walmer Castles — Havre — Passports -Custom-houses — 
The Diligence — Description — The guard — French farming — Old 
towns of Normandy — Lively French girl — Arrival at Rouen. 

At length I am able to date a letter from under the sun^ 
which could scarcely have been done in England during more 
than one day, since we landed. Such a May is, they say, 
very uncommon, but other travellers do not confirm this. Ve- 
getation is certainly more backward than usual ; the prospects 
for a good crop are yet excellent. 

Very little satisfaction is obtained by the traveller who 
inquires as to the best route to Paris ; some will tell you by 
Southampton, some Dover, &c. ; but I believe, from expe- 
rience, that the easiest and most agreeable mode is to take 
steam at London Bridge for Havre, a voyage of only seven- 
teen hours; this avoids one change of baggage, at least. The 
Rainbow, a fine vessel, left the pier at eight in the morning, 
thus giving us daylight to see the Thames ; it presents some 
points of interest, such as the arsenal at Woolwich, Gravesend, 
and the Nore. Steam-tugs were doing their best in every 
direction to carry large vessels to sea, and into port ; nume- 
rous craft, green banks covered with houses, or green fields, 
or little towns, enliven the scene every mile. The river be- 
comes very large near its mouth. Our first class passengers, 
of various nations, were agreeable; the fore-cabin had in it an 



136 PRANCE. 

entire French dramatic company, men, women, children, 
dogs, and parrots ; they seemed quite accustomed to roving-, 
having all the apparatus for cooking at hand ; their luggage 
was a serious matter of freight. 

Contrasted with these was a live specimen of an English- 
man ; he came on board some miles below Black wall, in a 
small boat. At first, I thought a whole family had arrived : 
first came up the side, two hat-boxes and a large sea-cap, then 
seven trunks, besides smaller articles of bags; and finally the 
gentleman showed his head, with a gun for a cane, a spy-glass 
slung round his neck, along with powder-horn, shot-bag, &c., 
&c., and with a fourth covering for the head, on top of a pretty 
stout wig. He looked complacently, but inquiringly on us, 
called right and left stoutly for-maid and waiters, and by dint 
of good management he was stowed away before dinner. I 
scraped acquaintance with him very soon, and found him in- 
telligent, well-read, and very English. By humouring his 
inveterate prejudices, I found out his pursuits ; by his own 
account he is one of a large species; a kind of sporting Will 
Wimble in a county far from London, who thinks the English 
the only nation in the world, hates the French most patrioti- 
cally, drinks more wine than would fill his long spy-glass, 
sports when he can, and travels to be able to talk of foreign 
places at good tables and the races : as useless an animal as 
ever breathed, and yet possessed of as much bonhomie in his 
way as you could desire in a travelling companion. He 
knew the Rev. Sidney Smith well, and had in his possession 
a letter from him, written not long before his death — which, 
by the way, he promised to me for my " drab-coated" friends 
to see. The few other conversible persons on board formed 
a coterie, and persuaded our captain to run in very near to 
Dover Castle and town, to see Shakspeare's and other chalk 
cliff's, the castle, and the scenery ; but neither equalled my 
expectations. We soon passed in view of Walmer Castle, a 
seat of the Duke of Wellington, where the Queen sometimes 
visits. 



FRANCE. 137 

Our John Bull sportsman, at dinner, gave us a specimen of 
the antipathy of his nation to the French ; among other anec- 
dotes he declared that he was invited to shoot with some gen- 
tlemen near Paris; but what was his astonishment on arriving 
at the ground, to find the party dressed en chasse, with red 
jackets, and with cross-bows, to shoot frogs, at a few feet dis- 
tance ! The national feelings of the English break out at 
every opportunity against the Irish and French ; probably the 
same remark would hold good as to the Americans on proper ■ 
occasions ; one or two of our passengers, however, exhibited 
more knowledge of our country than is usual; Webster, 
Guizot, and Peel, are looked upon as the three men of the 
three nations, on whom the destinies of each, for good or for 
evil, are principally dependent. Mr. Webster's visit to 
England has made him better known there than any of our 
public men, Mr. Clay not excepted ; the fame of the latter 
has not penetrated the crust of society very deeply. As for 
Mr. Po^/k, as he is universally called, they want much to 
know what public service he has rendered, to induce us to 
elevate him to the highest station. 

The voyage to Havre was one of pleasure to all on board 
the steamer ; I never saw the Delaware more free from the 
smallest swell or wave, than was the sea the v/hole distance; 
a glorious sunset over the " land of the free and the home of 
the brave" recalled recollections of home, and feelings not to 
be penned. 

Havre did not look sufficiently attractive to detain us any 
great length of time ; booking ourselves for the Diligence, 
we breakfasted at no very attractive hotel near the landing, 
kept by an Englishman named Wheeler, strolled round the 
town till the custom-house and passport-office were open, and 
then visited the official personages. At the former, our lug- 
gage underwent a hasty scrutiny by polite officers, who charge 
us two francs each for port duty ; two more francs sufficed 
for the passports, or rather temporary ones, the originals 
being detained, to be delivered to us at the bureau in Paris, 

12* 



138 FRANCE. 

in a few days. The scrutiny in both cases was by no means 
annoying", an English valet de place conducting us with ease 
through each ceremony with very little delay, and thence 
through an army of talking parrots, sailors, and their wives, 
to the Diligence. 

As many books of travels as I have perused, none had suc- 
ceeded in giving me a correct idea of this antique mode of 
conveyance. Imagine a caravan for an elephant and his 
keepers, and you have the size. In front is a little parlour 
for a small private family, called the coupe; above it the 
driver's seat, for himself and one passenger, while behind him, 
under a leather top, is another, (the banquette,) for three be- 
sides the conducteur ; over the driver three of the four pairs 
of eyes see very badly because of the incumbrance of the 
coachman and his left-hand neighbour on the same level ; a 
frame of glass, strapped up to the top, so as to let down if it 
should rain, protects the people over the coupe ; under the 
same cover, and behind the top passengers, are the trunks, 
boxes, and packages, so that when the glass is down you have 
an odorous smell of old leather, in addition to the nauseous 
pipe of the conducteur, who sits at his ease, winding up or 
down a little windlass, as the ascent or descent requires the 
action of a brake ! Behind the coupe, and under the luggage, 
are the inside passengers, six in number, stowed away amidst 
straps for fastening up an umbrella, and two canes each, four 
hats, and two ladies' bonnets ; the roof, originally too low, is 
thus brought down to a level with your nose ; nothing but 
the two windows will open, so that when a lady pulls down a 
blind, on account of the sun, you are nearly stifled. Another 
private apartment, (the rotund,) is behind the inierieur. 

We had among our party of three, two inside and one top 
seat, so that by changing about all the way to Rouen, we had 
each a taste of fresh air, and a slight view of the horses, 
sometimes five, six, seven, and once nine, when we came to 
a heavy hill ; these animals are geared in the most uncouth 
fashion, three abreast, but they are not one behind the other 



FRANCE. 139 

in regular train ; the third rear horse pulled in our case, by a 
rope tied to one of the steps, with his head steering- for the 
off fence ! some galloped, and some trotted, while the driver 
in a miserable dress and a Frenchified cap, whipped up, and 
uttered a guttural cry that none of us have been able, after 
much practice, to imitate. A little before every change, the 
conducteuT pulled out a large leathern purse, and paid in five- 
franc pieces, the hire of the horses, to the driver. Very little 
time was allowed for changing our steeds, scarcely enough to 
effect the great descent and get into the interieur. Our first 
attempt at changing seats was amusing ; the banquette pas- 
senger who was to get inside, called out to the other taking 
his place, •' I say — where did you come out from '}" Before 
one was fairly down, the conducteur was bawling out 
"Montez! vite ! vite !" 

The first view of French farming is novel enough to the 
foreigner ; there are no fences to be seen ; the cattle are all 
tethered, and by noon have eaten bare their allotted space ; 
the fields are cultivated in patches by women, with ploughs 
and other implements, rude and ungainly ; a species of 
clover, lucerne, now in 'bloom, is beautiful, giving the 
appearance of flower-beds. There are few or no good 
houses; like those at Havre, they seem generally to be built 
of plaster and wood ; we find the weather decidedly warmer 
than in England, where our thickest winter clothes, with 
always an overcoat, were requisite every day in May, while 
fires in our bed-rooms were required to keep us comfortable 
to the very close of the month. We saw several partings 
between gentlemen at Havre and on the route, when the 
kiss, such as a man might give in our country to his wife or 
daughter, was exchanged as a matter quite of course. 

As we entered the narrow streets of the dirty old towns of 
Normandy, the nose would inform us, with our eyes closed, 
of the fact ; we set down the inhabitants, therefore, as others 
have done before, as being dirty people; an epithet well 
deserved. 



140 FRANCE. 

We had in the interievr a lively specimen of the new nation 
we had got amongst, in the shape of a young French girl of 
affable manners. In ten minutes she had begun to display 
her treasures of travelling comforts. Her basket opened, she 
produced a large bundle of cakes, which were offered with 
great kindness to every one. Then came out of the pocket 
of the coach a bundle of shells purchased in Havre to make 
ornamental work when she got home ; in pi-oducing these, the 
paper broke, and away they all went to the floor, whence we 
vied in reinstating them in a curious old pitcher from the 
same poche, bought for its peculiar shape. We hoped she 
had got through ; but no ! she was anxious to display more 
purchases, and began to unburden her own pocket, the fun 
seemingly being to show us what a mixture it would contain ! 
A mixture truly there was: a bag full of working instruments, 
three pairs of scissors, and paraphernalia to match; then a nap- 
kin ring made of shells, pour papa; a picture book, &c., &c., 
and then a comb ! when this came, she was so provoked at the 
display, as to pitch it out of the window. I forget the re- 
mainder, but it was all accompanied with such a jabber of 
words and good humour that we were all in a roar. Finding 
my son did not fully comprehend her, she said she understood 
Anglish, and repeated with great glee, " How you dew ; 
farree wella," at great length. She then produced a phrase- 
book and offered to teach us all her language ! All this, 
among total strangers. A Frenchman present seemed to 
take her wit with great glee, but we thought her rather more 
than a fair specimen of the nation. In such plight did we 
course to Rouen, where a delay to see its extraordinary anti- 
quities will enable me to say again how much 

I am yours, &c. 



FRANCE. 141 



LETTER XXL 

Rouen, June, 1845. 

First impressions of Rouen — The hotel — Grotesque appearances — 
French postilions — The steamboat — Labourers — Commerce — Anti- 
quity — Houses — Shops — Cathedral — Interior — Monuments — Butter 
Tower — St. Ouen — Library and museum — Illuminated MS, — Mu- 
see — St. Patrice — Hotel de Bourgtheroude — Arrival at Paris. 

The first drive into a town like Rouen, creates much inte- 
rest in the mind of an American, totally unacquainted with 
such architecture and toute ensemble ; its narrow streets, and 
high gable-faced houses, are extremely curious. Our lumber- 
ing Diligence drove through them in such a style as really to 
alarm me for our safety ; the three horses abreast, straggled 
their heads so as almost to poke them into the windows on 
each side; no accident, however, occurred; we were set 
down in a stable-yard, and ordered to pay our railroad fare, 
with privilege of resting in Rouen : this we did, but it was an 
error, as you will learn in the sequel. The Hotel de Rouen 
on the Quai du Havre, not being very distant, we went on 
foot ; a porter, with a small wooden fixture on his back, having 
handles sticking out, was soon equipped with the heavy bag- 
gage, after a fashion that made my young travelling compa- 
nions smile, ^nd away we marched, along streets having no 
sign of a side-walk, a gutter down the centre, while the gar- 
bage was piled up against the houses, saluting the nose with 
no savoury force. We found our hptel clean, quiet, and every 
way excellent ; fine rooms overlooking the Seine, the ship- 



142 FRANCE. 

ping, steamboat, and passengers ; wagons of grotesque form 
loaded with wine, cotton, and other merchandise, enliven the 
prospect: we had so recently left the extreme dirt of London 
coal smoke, that it was a real luxury to see clean white 
sheets, and the price apparently very low : sixty cents for a 
bed-room per diem ; but it swelled up to more than three dol- 
lars a day. I mention this because to new-comers the charges 
in France appear to be moderate, while in reality they are 
not so; every candle is a franc, a bottle of ale is two francs, 
and servants are a franc more, so that though the bed-rooms 
are cheap, the table d'hote likewise, and very superior, you 
find it is more expensive than you had been led to expect. 

Some English nobility were at the house, travelling through 
the country in their own coaches, but with post-horses, four 
to each carriage. The conveyances drive in under the hotel ; 
such an outfit you never saw ! The two postilions v/ith 
boots so stiff in the ankle as to make walking difficult, and 
their outlandish looks, tying the leading horses by ropes, all 
exhibit the appearances which one had supposed had faded 
away with modern civilization ; but here nearly every thing 
is in a condition represented in pictures of some hundred 
years ago, except the little steamboat for Havre under our 
windows ; it looks peaked and frightened, as if it was astray 
in this old country; as if it was making an experiment to see 
whether it w^ould be naturalized or not, and doubtful how long 
it would be allowed to look at the middle-age cathedral and 
houses, high-capped old dames, Norman horses, Norman every 
thing, amid a few modern rows of houses lining the shells 
behind them. The place is one of industry, having consider- 
able cotton and other manufactories around it. The manner 
in which cotton bales are loaded here, on two wheels with 
long tressels, the whole covered with canvass or straw, is 
very picturesque. Four men are pretending to load railroad 
iron, below us, into wagons made of poles ; they evidently do 
not admire the job ; by the deliberation with which they pro- 
ceed, one would suppose their employers must pay very little 



FRANCE. 143 

for their labour. Numbers of peasant women, with high 
white caps and blue gowns, are constantly passing ; a fine 
sun, such as reminds us of home in July, has quite enlivened 
our spirits, and thawed us from our English frigidity. 

Vessels of two hundred and fifty tons arrive and depart 
from Havre with cotton, and take back wine and other pro- 
duce, but though a port, Roiien has not the air of one, nor 
yet of the Manchester of France, which it is called. There 
is no bustle indicative of commerce. To see Rouen in per- 
fection you must come before many years shall have elapsed, 
as a law has been passed prohibiting the rebuilding of houses 
in wood. We plunged very soon into the labyrinth of little 
streets, feeling at every step the strongest inclination to take 
sketches of matchless old houses, with gables and windows 
odd enough to satiate the artist or the most ardent lover of 
antiquity ; venerable, and picturesque, are poor words to 
express the scene every where presented ; you are trans- 
ported to the fourteenth century as soon as you leave the 
new facade on the Quai. The houses are high and very 
small, often one room deep, backed by another little room on 
another street, so that the thickly stowed inhabitants have no 
symptom of a yard, much less of a garden ; every lower room, 
almost, is a shop of some kind ; many of these are showy, 
especially the confectioners' and shops des varietes; in the 
latter is offered a set of commodities quite new to our eyes in 
their appearance. In one, figures in ivory, not dear, gilt 
and gold chains of curious manufacture, bijouterie of all 
kinds, pictures, saints, crosses, mousetraps; and next door, 
meat, flowers, or vegetables. The people are generally 
dressed to correspond with the antiquity around, so as to 
appear part and parcel of the place — as if they had survived 
the civilization going on in other countries. It is difficult, 
nay, impossible, to convey a first impression of such a scene 
to a person from a country where an old house of the last 
century is so curious an object as to get into a popular 
book called Watson's Annals ; tell the clever author of that 



144 FRANCE. 

redoubtable and valuable work, to go to Rouen with his 
painter ; there is occupation for a lifetime. So much for the 
town — let us glance at its cathedral and churches. 

The cathedral I will not attempt to picture to your eyes ; 
in the year 260, Saint Mellon built the first chapel on this 
site, but after being burned, plundered, and rebuilt several 
times, it was at last destroyed by fire in the year 1200. 
John, Duke of Normandy, and King of England, granted the 
necessary funds to rebuild it, and now begins the modern 
origin of the present pile, which required from the thirteenth 
to the sixteenth century to complete it. The great Gothic 
facade, with its profuse decorations, its stone screens of 
open tracery, crumbling towers, (one lately replaced with 
new yellow stone, perking up like a modern dandy among 
weather-beaten monuments,) all strike at once upon the 
mind with force ; first, of admiration at the piety that could 
so patiently cut the hard material; next with admiration for 
the Gothic — but finally with sorrow, that the religion which 
prompted the expenditure, is not more simple in its forms, 
more understandable to its votaries. 

At all hours of the day poor people are kneeling at the 
various shrines; while little thin candles, raised upon an 
upright and set in a large round tin, are burning before some 
shrine or monument in a niche. The interior measures four 
hundred and thirty-five feet in length, and the nave is ninety 
feet in height. The three rose windows of coloured glass are 
enormous and very fine. The tomb and effigy of Rollo, first 
Duke of Normandy, and the marbles in the choir marking the 
spot where are deposited the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion, 
and the bodies of his brother Henry, of William, son of 
Geoffrey Plantagenet, and of John, Duke of Bedford, arrest 
attention. When the church was injured by the Huguenots 
in 1663, the effigy and heart of Richard were removed and 
lost until 1838, when they were dug up from the pavement 
near the high altar. His " lion heart" was found still per- 
fect, but shrunk in size, enveloped in green taffeta and lead. 



FRANCE. 145 

He is buried at Fonterrault, but his heart he bequeathed to 
Rouen, in testimony of his great affection for the Normans. 
The efSgy is mutilated, but enough remains to exhibit him 
crowned, and in the royal robes. Cardinals in effigy, old 
painted glass, pictures, allegorical figures, mixed in with old 
chairs hired for seats, dirty candlestands, iron railings shut- 
ting out the stranger from some sculptured monument or 
chapel, are passed without taking time to read inscriptions ; 
the marble efBgy of the distressed widow Diana of Poictiers, 
kneeling at the head of an emaciated corpse, representing 
her husband after death, is curious; she is in a mournful 
attitude, corresponding with the sentiment of the epitaph 
dictated by herself: 

" ladivulsa tibi quondam, et fidissima conjux, 
Ut f'uit in thalarao sic eril in tumulo." 

But so it was not in the grave, for she was buried at her cha- 
teau of Anet. She was the mistress of Henry 11. Above 
is the Duke on horseback, a fine piece of art of the age of 
Francis I. 

On emerging fi'om this curious scene, the southwest tower 
is conspicuous, called Tour de Beurre, having been built by 
that curious process of granting indulgences to eat butter in 
Lent; the filigree stone circlet surmounting it must be con- 
sidered superb. The central spire spoils the termination ; it 
is merely a cage of cast iron bars, unworthy of the edifice, 
replacing a wooden one burnt in 1822, and when finished, 
will reach the enormous height of four hundred and thirty- 
five feet. Fine views of this cathedral, and of St. Ouen, will 
be found in the new work on Normandy, by Janin. 

Not far off is the church of St. Ouen, admitted beyond a 
doubt to be one of the noblest and most perfect Gothic edi- 
fices in the world : more pure in style than its neighbour, it 
is only surpassed by it in historic monuments. All the win- 
dows are painted; the entire work may be studied with 
admiration for days. A very pretty garden, formerly belong- 

13 



146 FRANCE. 

ing- to the abbey, is behind the church, filled with gay 
flowers, and trimmed trees, furnishing shady and beautiful 
walks for the inhabitants, who saunter along without an appa- 
rent wish to touch the gay tulips and roses in full bloom. 

Adjoining is the monastery of the friars, now a town hall; 
in the second story is the library and museum, to which 
visiters are admitted without fee ; the former contains thirty- 
three thousand volumes, among them one thousand two hun- 
dred manuscripts; the most remarkable is the Gradual of 
Daniel D'Aubonne, of the seventeenth century, containing 
two hundred vignettes and initials by the hand of a master, 
the colours as fresh as the day they were put on ; the work 
is about the size of a volume of one of our largest newspapers, 
bound with iron-like hinges ; a more remarkable specimen of 
illumination I have not yet seen. The museum, of paintings 
principally, is large and gorgeous, but contains more pictures 
of inferior than of superior merit. 

The Musee des Antiquites, not far from it, is much more 
interesting ; it contains Roman and Gallic tombstones, coffins, 
and effigies, dug up in the vicinity of Rouen. The fifteen 
windows of painted glass from old convents and churches, 
exhibit in a series, the progress of the art, and are superior 
to any thing in France or England. A glazed frame contains 
the mark of William the Conqueror, who could not write, 
and the signature of Richard Cceur de Lion, autographs 
which would set up a collector. An extensive collection of 
coins surrounds the principal room, in which Vv^orkmen were 
labelling the articles preparatory, it is to be hoped, to a cata- 
logue. The whole arrangements are creditable to the admi- 
nistration of the department, by whom the Musee was founded 
in 1833. 

A peep of an hour will scarcely satisfy the traveller with 
the sight of the painted glass in the church of St. Patrice, 
not named in the guide-books, but well worth seeing for this 
kind of ornament, both for quantity and extreme beauty. 

We went a round of fatiguing sights — fatiguing by their 



FRANCE. 147 

extraordinary character or beauty, not forg-etting- St. Maclou 
and the Hotel de Bourgtheroude, the latter the most curious 
monument in Rouen. It is covered with basso-relievos re- 
lating' to the time of the occupation of Normandy by the 
English. In one, Henry VIII. is just come forth vi'ith his 
suite, with troops having great feathers in their hats and 
mounted on noble steeds. The whole front is covered with 
very remarkable sculpture of this kind; one side of the court 
has gone to decay, the fragments being preserved in the 
Musee des Antiquites, where, as long as they remain, they 
will be considered very interesting relics. A volume would 
scarce suffice to detail the interesting sights in Rouen ; if 
I afflict you but with a single letter, give me credit for 
leniency. 

Paris. On going too late to the railroad, to return to the 
coach-office, we found our places for Paris had not been 
taken, as promised by the clerk ; the railroad men would not 
allow us to pass on without again paying, and on our arrival 
here the same concern has refused to refund the money, sixty 
francs. We made the mistake of not returning to the Dili- 
gence Office, and going to the depot in it; this lumbering 
affair is mounted on the railway and goes up to Paris with 
its Rouen passengers. 

I am, very truly, 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER XXII. 



Paris, June, 1845. 



The railroad — Remlnisrences — Meurice's Molel — Remove to lodgings 
— Description — Mr. Walsh — Sample dinner at the Palais Roj'ai — 
The Seine — Champs Elysees — Place de la Concorde — Amusements 
— Obelisk of Luxor. 

The Diligence is superseded by the railroad from Rouen 
to Paris; it was opened in 1843, and is to extend to Havre, 



148 FRANCE. 

to which place the route will be completed by May, 1846 ; 
the highroad, like our Lancaster turnpike, is nearly deserted, 
while the slower steamboat is abandoned. The road is car- 
ried up the valley of the Seine, the river mostly about the 
size of the Schuylkill. The scenery will not compare with 
that of our little Pennsylvania river, though there are so 
many places of historical interest that t^e mind is kept 
awake : at Mantes, for instance, William tlie Conqueror 
received the injury which caused his death a few days after, 
at Rouen. Madame de Genlis was buried in a little ceme- 
tery not far from Neuilly ; and in a little church of the village, 
the Empress Josephine is interred, where a simple monu- 
ment has been erected by her children. Her favourite resi- 
dence, Malmaison, has been sold, and her pleasure-grounds 
also, together with her Swiss dairy and merino farm. 

The railroad is not so firm, and consequently the coaches 
are not so steady, as those of England, though the whole 
seem to have been made after their patterns. Our baggage 
underwent another slight inspection at the depot here, and 
v/e drove immediately to the Hotel de Meurice, where we 
found several Philadelphians, and next day met my state- 
room companion of the Saranak, who having become wearied 
with the cold and wet of England, has preceded us; he 
informs us that the climate here has been little less pro- 
pitious, though it is now improving. Meurice's Hotel is a 
large one, luxuriously furnished, very comfortable, and fa- 
mous for its good dinners. The mode of living at it is very 
Parisian, though frequented mostly by English and Ameri- 
cans. You take a room, if it is not full, which it usually is, 
for four francs a day, more or less as you please or can get 
one, breakfast for two francs more, dine and tea where you 
please, and discover that by some process, not anticipated, 
your bill of six francs comes to two dollars and a half at 
least, for a candle is again a franc, and servants, " boots," 
&c. &c., are added ad libitum. We were not able to get 
apartments on the few- first floors, and soon changed our 



FRANCE. 149 

quarters to private lodgings, where we each have a room, 
with a parlour in common, the whole for seven francs per day, 
with breakfast if we choose, for two more, and can buy our 
own candles ! we hope more economiceJly. In each of our 
four rooms is a mantel clock, striking the quarters as well as 
the hours; it is an ornament as much in request as some of 
those in America, but these are very tastefully made. 

It would much puzzle you to find us out, even if you were 
•set down in our street, the Rue Neuve de St. Augustin, and 
were told that our number is 38. The front of the street, 
([ am describing a great portion of Paris,) is occupied by 
houses and shops, but between every two is a wide gateway, 
some of which admit carriages: pass into and through it, but 
inquire of the concierge or porter — who has a room under or 

near the end of the arch — for Madame D'Ouest, and Mr. ; 

he will point to the door of the house on the rear of the lot, 
having marble steps and some china vases in front, and tell 

you Mr. is on the fourth floor, number 8. Ascend, but 

don't count the first floor, nor another small one, called the 
entresol, but go up six pair of winding steps, waxed and rub- 
bed bright by the use of a brush on the feet of the men- 
servants every morning. As a foreigner, you will think we 
are high in the world from poverty of purse ! no such thing; 
— there are two or three more stories, where our friends, not 
fortunate in getting lower, have been mounting these two 
weeks. But you are puzzled, for there are a great number 
of doors all round — ah ! there is number 8, twice repeated 
over the door. Search about, and you will see an odd sort of 
a bell-pull— ring it, and 1 will appear. Enter our little par- 
lour, eleven feet square : it has two large looking-glasses, 
three easy chairs, covered with blue silk, a sofa to match, 
the clock over the mantel, an escritoire, — at which I am 
writing, and where I keep five hundred francs, just drawn 
from our bankers, and carried home in a canvass bag,* — with 

* Silver is the universal currency. 
13* 



150 FRANCE. ; 

Other furniture, good of its kind, such as marble-topped tables, 
and chairs. There are two windows, with the oddest fasten- 
ings, opening inwards from top to bottom, and shaded from 
our near neighbours first with close-fitting white curtains, 
and then with blue damask. 

Adjoining is my sleeping-room, seven feet wide, very com- 
fortable. There are four doors opening out of the little par- 
lour, and one placed in the wall with another concealed in 
the panelling, so that we should be airy enough in cold 
weather. JVTy seat where I write overlooks the floors of four- 
teen families, on different flats, into whose windows I could 
cast a biscuit ! It is daytime, and I see several little domestic 
groups in the windows. 

I have called upon my friend Mr. Walsh, the American 
Consul, whom I find looking very well ; he offers me every 
kind of facility in his power, and as an evidence of his good- 
will, presents me at once with orders for admittance into the 
palaces and so forth, for the proper days, and makes other 
appointments for the future. 

A party of Americans, under convoy of some older residents 
from our good city, agreed to dine to-day at Les Trois Freres 
Proven^aux, in the Palais Royal, the best and most showy of 
the Paris restaurants. We are six in number, including two 
ladies. The scene is singular: the rooms in the restaurant 
are not large, and one side is upon a thoroughfafe where 
carriages set down their passengers, the other looking upon a 
great quadrangle ; three sides of the room are filled with 
large plates of clear glass ; in one, on the quadrangle, appro- 
priated for a show-place and doors, are exposed, to tempt the 
passer-by, strawberries, cauliflowers, artichokes, and other 
fresh vegetables. Two little tables are put together, a nice 
table-cloth thrown over them, plates, silver spoons, anJ forks, 
and bread, are ready in a moment, and our cicerones (older 
residents than us by three whole days !) are engaged in 
searching from an octavo printed book for delicacies to asto- 
nish us, while the waiter gets the most delicious soup. A 



\ FRANCE. 151 

variety of French dishes slowly followed, succeeded by a 
charlotte russe of coloured ices; we had besides four bottles 
of wine — claret — and for this sample dinner we paid about 
one dollar and a half each ; ordinarily you dine for four or five 
francs, and at Meurice's, with sixteen to twenty-four courses, 
for the same. 

It was odd to see so many respectable ladies dining thus as 
a matter of every-day custom, — taking their wine, and being 
perfectly at home ; they arrive and depart with the same ease 
of manner they would enter their own parlour; wear and part 
with their bonnets au plaisir at the table, and take no notice 
of their neighbours, who are within a foot of them. While 
we took our leisurely meal, we surveyed the novel scene ; 
two or three hundred well-dressed people came and went 
away during the period of an hour and a half, during which 
we vied with each other in producing from our American 
letters just received and only half read before, the greatest 
budget of Philadelphia news, marriages, and Presidential ap- 
pointments, and so on. It was a scene as agreeable as it was 
novel. The ceilings are painted, and the paintings covered 
v/ith plate-glass for protection and ornament, while every 
possible place not of simple glass, is occupied by mirrors, gilt, 
or richly papered. Two well-dressed ladies sit in the centre, 
where every thing passes them and is charged without a mo- 
ment's delay, and the bill is ready as soon as called for. 
These cafes and restaurants are principally patronized by 
strangers- 

We have endeavoured to rest a little since our arrival, 
taking short walks in the garden of the Tuileries, entering 
the churches, and delivering a few letters of introduction, 
waiting till we have studied our map and for a proper group- 
ing of objects of interest, so as to see them with the least 
fatigue. The ensuing day after the dinner we passed in this 
way, and in the evening took a glance at the Champs Elysees, 
where the trees are cut into shapes, forming long vistas ; here 
the outwardly happy Parisians on a fine evening, which we 



152 FRANCE. 

have just returned from enjoying, amuse themselves in a 
manner so totally different from the Londoners, or our people, 
that it will be worth while to recount our first view. Enter- 
ing the Tuileries garden from the Rue Rivoli, opposite to 
Meurice's, we encountered a thick wood, like a forest, in a 
most healthy condition, through which no sunshine could 
ever penetrate. The walks were lined with ladies and gen- 
tlemen, pursuing leisurely their evening promenade, to and 
from the Champs Elysees, while carriages drove along very 
leisurely in the alleys and roads. 

Walking from the Tuileries you pass the Place de la Con- 
corde, and the obelisk of I.uxor, around which fine fountains 
are playing, and enter a long walk with a carriage drive 
in the centre, with spaces around it; this is the Champs 
Elysees; the wide foot-pavement is of asphalte, very perfect, 
and adjoining are all sorts of exhibitions: a cafe has a parcel 
of chairs, tables, and a stage in the open air, where vocalists, 
fiddlers, and harpers, are making a kind of concert for the 
customers seated around, drinking beer, eating cakes, or 
smoking cigars. A little further is a set of hobby-horses or 
run-rounds, for the amusement of grown boys and men; then 
an old woman has placed three or four candles on the ground, 
and a very little child is playing on the violin to gaping 
spectators, who have a plate presented to them now and then 
for a sous. Beyond, a woman is performing on the harp; a 
little table is erected for playing a sort of billiards ; booths for 
toys of the commonest kinds, cakes, and confectionary, are 
spread about, and here the people seem to enjoy themselves 
very much like children, with no care for the morrow. 

Carriages drive about in the centre, soldiers are every 
where, as they are over all Paris, and the utmost order and 
outward decency prevails. The scene altogether was curi- 
ous : goat phaetons, four-in-hand for children, are racing 
about much more merrily than in the London parks. Little 
boys without hats, turned out from home, if home it can be 
called, where the parents are abroad at some spectacle or 



FRANCE. 153 

cafe, are running about. The magnificent obelisk of Luxor, 
cut one thousand five hundred and fifty years before the 
Christian era, and brought at enormous expense from Egypt, 
is an object of intense interest. 

• Yours, &.C. 



LETTER XXII L 

Paris, June, 1845. 

Historical recollections — ^The Tuileries — Bibliotheque dii Roi — M. 
Jouraard — The treasures of the library — MSS.— Engravings — Anti- 
quities — Monument to Moliere — Sunday in Paris — Worship at St. 
Roque — The King's apartments in the Palais Royal — Minister of 
public worship. 

The amount of interest attached to the historical recollec- 
tions of France is less to most of us than those of England, 
probably because we have read more of the books of the latter 
than of the former nation ; and yet no one can come to this 
city, without having his memory eminently refreshed respect- 
ing scenes most famous in story. The Tuileries have been 
the seat of more great events probably than any other build- 
ing in the world ; they do not disappoint any one who has 
been accustomed to see pictures of the building ; the front is 
old, but in tolerably good repair ; the trees in front, trimmed 
in the French style, with their fine avenues, are strikingly 
neat ; the old lemon trees set about are also cut in the old 
manner ; they are aot at present apparently in good health, 
and are not allowed to bear fruit; their size is enormous. 
The statuary of marble, displayed every where, is white and 
clean, very French, and often highly ornamental. The King 
resides at the Tuileries at present, as do many of the royal 
family, including the Duchess d'Orleans, widow of Louis 
Philippe's oldest son, whose little boy of seven or eight is 



154 FRANCE. 

the next heir to the throne. The Prince de Joinville, it is 
said, occupies the sixth floor of one of the suites of apart- 
ments, — but it is only the third probably — no derogation to 
dignity here, where the higher the flat you inhabit, the freer 
from noise and smells ; of the latter Paris is full, as new- 
comers especially inform you. 

Let us go to-day to the Bihliotheque du Roi, under guidance 
of the honorary director, M. Joumard, who was with Bona- 
parte in Egypt, and is, a distinguished scholar. The exterior 
has much the appearance of a jail, but the interior is superb. 
The building has been used for various purposes; among others 
it was head-quarters for Law, when his Mississippi scheme 
was deluding its votaries, and it was also once occupied by 
Cardinal Mazarin, and here he breathed his last. In the time 
of Charles V. the library contained only nine hundred and 
ten volumes; it has now one million two hundred thousand; 
more than five times the number of that of the British Mu- 
seum. As M. Joumard remarked, brooks feed the rivers, and 
all rivers flow into the sea; this is the sea of literature, where 
are deposited its golden sands, brought from all lands which 
have any claim to being considered book, map, or print- 
makers. We were first shown the great rooms of maps: the 
topographical portion is astonishingly complete ; it contains 
over three hundred thousand charts; there are eighty-six 
maps, each six feet in height, of France alone ; a large map 
of the world, engraved at Vienna, with the names in the lan- 
guage of each country represented. Here is the Arabian 
Astrolabe, and Arabian maps of the twelfth century. 

The manuscripts are astoundingly numerous ; they consist 
of about eighty thousand volumes, including thirty thousand 
relating to the history of France. Many were brought from 
Egypt under M. Joumard's inspection ; the catalogue of the 
MSS. alone fills twenty-four folio volumes. In estimating the 
volumes here, pamphlets bound together are counted as one 
volume. The long perspective of the great suites of rooms 
is one of the striking appearances; guards in uniform are at 



FRANCE. 155 

hand here and there to prevent visiters from doing injury ; on 
certain days the public may enter and consult any vi^ork re- 
quired, by writing its name on paper. Every thing is 
free of charge ; six hundred readers, students, and copiers, re- 
pair to it daily for information or amusement. They have a 
large room appropriated to them, free from disturbance other 
than v^hat they make themselves. Every part and portion 
is so very clean, and neat, as to excite astonishment and 
admiration. 

The specimens of book-binding, from the earliest date, 
exhibit a succession of tastes to which latter years have added 
little beauty. The first editions of books are extremely nu- 
merous, rich and rare, and here, too, you will observe that no 
improvement in clearness of typography has been obtained 
since the earliest dates. The oldest printed Bible, and the 
most ancient book printed with a date, 1457, are here ; the 
latter is a psalter, issued at Mentz by Faust and Schaeffer ; 
the Mazarine Bible, also, printed in 1456 with cut metal 
types ; in short, the first printed books of all countries, are 
exposed under glass cases with labels. 

But the manuscripts were most interesting; we saw those 
of Galileo ; letters from Henry IV. ; the prayer-books of St. 
Louis and Anne of Brittany, and other rich illuminations ; the 
MS, of Fenelon's Telemachus, in Fenelon's own hand ; auto- 
graph memoirs of Louis XIV. ; a MS. of Josephus ; a volume 
of three hundred pages, containing the names of all the vic- 
tims of Robespierre ; with some missals of the fourth and fiflh 
centuries, the most ancient in existence. Franklin's auto- 
graph, with those of Voltaire, Madame de Maintenon, Racine, 
Moliere, Corneille, Boileau, Rousseau, &c,, tempt the eye of 
an amateur. The Chinese collection, both of engravings, 
MSS., curious maps of great size, Arabian, Ethiopian, and 
even quantities of Japanese, puzzle one to know how they 
ever could have met in such numbers in the French capital. 
The engravings are esteemed as among the great treasures 
of the institution ; those of the history of France fill eighty- 



156 FRANCE. 

five large red portfolios ; here may be studied costumes, my- 
thology, and every thing required from such means of instruc- 
tion ; many artists were copying ; among them were several 
females. 

A gallery of antiquities is attached, containing a little well- 
preserved ancient armour, medals, and coins to the number of 
one hundred thousand, of extreme rarity ; the famous vase 
of the Ptolemys, Egyptian antiquities, cameos, and gold orna- 
ments of great age, intaglios ; the porphyry bath of Clovis, 
&c. ; but in this department the British Museum far exceeds 
this institution. One famous and large room has a high ceil- 
ing, painted in fresco, very beautifully, by Romanelli, in 
1651. 

In the same street stands the "new monument to the memory 
of Moliere, recently erected, a marble slab on the house oppo- 
site, informing the searcher that No. 34 is the house in which, 
he died. This day has been one of great enjoyment; we may 
read for ever of great libraries, but inspection is requisite to 
convey correct ideas of their appearance. The one I de- 
scribed in London, the Bodleian at Oxford, and this, have been 
to me places to which my memory will most frequently revert ; 
and yet I feel that I have conveyed to you little information 
respecting them. 

My first Sunday in Paris did, I confess, even after all I had 
heard respecting it, surprise me very much. I had read, as 
all other general readers have, that very little attention was 
paid to its observance, but I did not believe the half of what I 
have seen to-day. Without circumlocution, let me just tell 
you what I have witnessed. While dressing at eight, we 
had a musical serenade in our court ; sallying out, it was evi- 
dent the shopkeepers had no respect, after our fashion, for the 
Sabbath. Not a single shop in all Paris was shut up; 
people were engaged in their several occupations just as on 
the day before ; they were buying, selling, working at their 
trades, coaching, just as usual. By ten o'clock, when I again 
turned out, a number, but not a great number of females, 



FRANCE. 1 57 

dressed as if for church, were on the move ; so I entered the old 
St. Roque cathedral, where the Catholic ceremonies, French 
fashion, had just begun. This is the chapel where the Queen 
worships ; and last Sunday when she was there, a military 
band accompanied the procession of the host, and beat their 
drums at the periods when a bell is usually rung ; but to-day 
the ceremony was less imposing, though to our uninitiated 
eyes very novel. Two large Swiss, dressed en militaire^ 
with military hats, which they did not take off, and holding 
large silver-mounted canes, headed a procession, sounding 
their staves on the marble floor so as to be heard all over, and 
using the same motions of the hand as a drum-major, whom 
they greatly resembled. Then followed boys bearing flam- 
beaux, a crucifix of silver, and candles, interspersed with 
priests, two brass serpents accompanying the chanting. One 
entire perambulation ended, the priests entered a vestry- 
room, and returned dressed in gold and red, when the regular 
Catholic service commenced, followed by the singing of a 
choir of boys, a sermon, incense, candle-burning, Latin, and 
so forth. Another service was going on in a place called 
Calvary, at the far end, for the Poles, a numerous body here, 
at a high altar surrounded by statuary, a dead Christ, and a 
painted wall to represent the mountain, rocks, and woods. 
A school of girls, in full voice, was singing in a little room 
so as to be distinctly heard ; people as little interested as our- 
selves, were sauntering about in numbers, looking at the 
carvings, paintings, and great stained glass windows every 
where conspicuous and most imposing ; there were old chairs 
to rent, devotees of all grades were kneeling, beggars were 
soliciting money, men and women were seated about near the 
fonts with a little hickory brush to sprinkle us with holy 
water if we wished it ; children were being christened in 
little chapels with little boys for god-fathers, their names 
registered by the priests ; and all this under one roof, and at 
the same time, while relics in niches were observable around ; 

14 



158 FRANCE. 

passing the door was a funeral, and on the other side of the 
way a band of music playing, and soldiers marching. 

The apartments of the Palais Royal over the shops, left as 
it was occupied by Louis Philippe when Duke of Orleans, is 
thrown open on this day for the crowd to inspect its suites of 
gilded saloons and showy pictures ; omnibuses, "railroads, and 
steamboats are leaving, crowded with people for St. Cloud 
and Versailles, also thrown open, and their fountains playing 
to admiring thousands; but worst of all, there was at the 
latter, to-day, regular horse-races, to which the Parisians 
advised us by all means to go, as the finest spectacle we 
should see here ; but where we did not go. 

About two o'clock there was a slamming of window- 
shutters, one at a time, along the principal streets, and the 
shops on Sunday afternoon did present some appearance 
resembling our own; one-third or so, however, were not 
shut at all till the usual hour at night. The churches were 
about half full, the streets gay, music by a full band was 
introduced into the gardens, while in the evening the public 
walks exceeded our former limited experience, for open tents 
were erected, and crowds of people were dancing in public 
on stages elevated about, in the Champs Ely sees. Most of 
this one has read before coming to Paris; but you have 
either read it carelessly, or have not believed it, so that 
the impression heretofore received is not half as vivid as the 
scene; perhaps too, you had believed there was an improve- 
ment since the Revolution, or you had some misgivings as to 
whether you had not jumbled modern and older books toge- 
ther regarding the matter; be the case as it may, account 
for it how you can, the sudden transition from the other side 
of the Channel to this, strikes one with surprise ; it was a 
fine day — every body, so to say, turned out, and we saw a 
Parisian Sunday in all its variety. It may add to your 
impressions of the reality, if I tell you that hod-men were 
every where carrying hods up ladders, and that building 
went on as usual in all parts of the town. 



FRANCE. 159 

An efTort has been made in the Chamber of Deputies, 
within a few days, to induce the Minister of Public Worship 
to enforce the laws which do exist, preventing- this dese- 
cration, but it will be impossible soon to change the entire 
population, brought up as they are to practices such as these, 
from their youth ; it is in their bones, their character. We 
have something of the same kind at New York and Philadel- 
phia—some shops are open in each city — some parties of 
pleasure go to Camden, or Hoboken, and eat and smoke in 
the open air at cafes, while some go elsewhere, but the entire 
population is very differently employed ; they do not all work, 
and amuse themselves. We have walked about to see all 
this, to have a correct idea of it, but have returned to the 
comparative quiet of our lodgings, with great satisfaction. Tea, 
and a pleasant chat with some countrymen at Mr. Walsh's, 
reconciled us to absence from home. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTERXXIV. 

Paris, June, 1845. 

Paris fatiguing — Deliberate people — The climate — St. Cloud — Napo- 
leon's country residence — Example of French taste — The Water- 
Works — Want of water, &c. in Paris— St. Denis— Burial-place of the 
Kings of France — Effigies— French glory — Peace — Meeting of the 
Institute — Arago — Dr. M . 

Americans look to Paris for enjoyment — in a certain sense 
and degree they are right ; but a person uncertain how long 
the physician will order him, or his children, or friend, for 
whose benefit he is travelling, to remain, and who uses, as 
I have done, all the time he can spare from sleep, in sight- 
seeing, will find his cup of sweets copiously mi?ed with the 
bitter. In the first place, nobody is in a hurry in France ; 



160 FRANCE. 

they are so deliberate, that if you order breakfast immediately^ 
an hour will probably elapse before your coffee and eg-gs are 
ready ; then to get about with their slow horses, is no joke ; 
the hackmen (alias cabriolet drivers), go slower than you can 
walk; — " vite, vite," here means slow; — the sun is more 
piercing-, if possible, than in Philadelphia in July ; it is very 
dusty, you don't know the way perfectly, and so you lose 
several hours in the day ; add to this, that the people of busi- 
ness prefer pleasure to trade, leave their shops and stores to 
inferiors, and you have an idea, but a most distant one, of the 
time and trouble required to get through your enterprises. 
We undertook yesterday to go to St. Cloud, because the 
waters were to play on that day, and went in a Diligence- 
kind-of omnibus, for a very trifle, two leag-ues: the driver 
was in no kind of hurry and went fast to sleep, letting his 
horses move along at a walk so slow, that I got into a fever — 
stole his whip and cracked away at the animals without waking 
him, though he uttered a grunt, to say he was disposed to see 
all right; it was Blue Monday, and he v;as therefore to be 
excused, said our valuable cicerone, Mons. Rodolphe, whom 
I can recommend to travellers ; though he himself has no 
objection to stand and wait an hour or two, if he can per- 
suade you there is any chance for a spectacle^ or a sight of 
Louis Philippe. 

Originally built in 1572, by a financier of wealth, St. Cloud 
has passed through the hands of four Bishops of Paris, was 
purchased by Louis XIV., and converted into a splendid resi- 
dence for his brother the Duke of Orleans; it was afterwards 
purchased by Louis XVL, for Marie Antoinette. Napoleon 
showed a marked preference for this fairy place, which may 
be said to be less a palace than a royal country-seat; he 
attended to the affairs of state here, in a rural retirement 
which any monarch might envy ; though, by the way, I can- 
not help remarking that this kingly, uncertain tenure, can- 
not give the pleasure to a monarch that the possession of 



FRANCE. 161 

one's own little cottage is capable of affording to an Ameri- 
can farmer, who can call all he sees his own. 

The place is an exemplar of French taste, especially of the 
age when it was ornamented ; — an age whose fashions seem 
likely again to come into use ; gilding and deep colouring, 
pictures florid, and in which colour seems to be a principal 
ingredient, cabinets in tortoise-shell and buhl, porcelain and 
statuary, seem to have been the beau ideal of royalty; 
chapels which tell a religious story in gilded pictures or 
tapestry, ranges of rooms filled with historical scenes, give 
place to those domestic comforts which we prize not beyond 
their worth ; cold — cold — comfortless grandeur j — to produce 
an effect^ seems to have been the object of the artists era- 
ployed ; they have succeeded — Louis Philippe and his court 
take pleasure in perpetuating this taste — they restore — regild, 
beautify, and continue the scene for future generations. For 
one, I am obliged to them, but I do not think the taste that 
originated the fashion can long survive the utilitarian age that 
has just commenced making (steam) inroads upon the nation. 

We walked, with hundreds, the galleries ; witnessed the 
grand efforts of the jets d'eau and the cascade— pretty play- 
things of a bygone age — the whole discharging about one- 
quarter as much water as turns one wheel of the Philadelphia 
Water- Works ! The trick — for trick it is — of these foun- 
tains, is to make the water do double duty by pouring from one 
basin to another. At the great cascade, which still continues 
to be the admiration of thousands of Parisians, the water does 
duty a dozen times; first it spouts in a jet — then it tumbles 
down a flight of steps, receiving little streams from the mouths 
of lions; then it performs gyrations in a basin below, and 
ultimately makes a lame effort at elevation in miserable jets 
in a square, artificial, flat lake. We are not great, in Phila- 
delphia, at making fine sights, but I would rather see our 
Water- Works usefully employed in se^Jding wholesome water 
to our inhabitants, than this kingly toy so employed, while 
the great population of Paris is drinking at unwholesome 

14* 



162 PRANCE. 

founts, has no under- drainage, and is imperfectly freed from 
dust. But the Frenchman, or rather woman of Paris, is con- 
tent to endure bad smells in her house for several days, if 
on one she can snufFthe fresh air of a paternal king's garden. 

About the same distance from Paris, in another direction, 
is St. Denis, a village of no pretensions, but having a church 
in which the kings of France have successively chosen to be 
buried ; — they are crowned at Rheims, reign in Paris, and 
are sent to the great church of St. Denis to moulder, and 
have their statues sculptured according to the taste of the 
age in which they lived, to transmit their features to poste- 
rity in enduring stone, louis Philippe has declined to share 
this species of immortality with them, and w'lW be buried 
elsewhere, Bonaparte was ambitious to join the great pre- 
decessors, who~e profuse expenditure he endeavoured to imi- 
tate; he built himself a fine vault here, with brazen doors 
having three keys — but his people have chosen to commemo- 
rate him as a great Genes al^ and he sleeps in the Hotel of 
the Invalids. 

The church is magnificent, but gaudy; despoiled in the 
time of the revolution of its relics, the monuments were for- 
tunately preserved, though somewhat mutilated, and the 
whole has now been restored with care ; the windows will 
very soon all be filled with painted glass, the lost or broken 
portions being replaced from the Royal Manufactory of 
Sevres. Beginning with Dagobert, who was buried in 580, 
and Pepin, father of Charlemagne, we have, in a half- 
subterranean long vault or crypt, a series of most inte^-esting 
effigies of kings and queens, with whose names come flashes 
of memory, momentary but vivid. Likenesses in stone, clean 
and dry in this protected place, are Louises and their queens, 
Anne of Brittany, Catherine De Medicis, Marie Antoinette, 
not forgetting Hugh Capet, Philip Augustus, Blanche, and a 
host whose names fil^ all the histories of France. These 
effigies are in remarkable preservation — probably of many it 
should be said, of restoration. The present policy seems to 



FRANCE. 163 

be to perpetuate the memory of the annals of France — to 
give the people a pride in their national history, and to throw 
open to them, as well as to strangers, the means of imprint- 
ing the whole by the eye, without even the necessity of 
books. Here and at Versailles, which will form the subject 
of part at least of a future letter, are depicted the glories of 
France ; truly, in the world's estimation of what glory is, 
they are numerous — would that they partook more of that 
spirit of peace and good-will which the great founder of 
Christianity taught, but which neither Catholics nor Protes- 
tants have yet been careful to practise. Let us hope that 
modern civilization, and modern steam power, have made us 
so well acquainted with each other, or will ultimately do so, 
that wars and rumours of wars, which have made up the 
bulk of history, will cease; as Longfellow has happily said: 

" Down llie dark future, through long generations, 
The echoing sounds gn)W Winter, and ihen cease; 
And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, 
1 liear once more the voice of Christ say, ' Peace.' " 

When nations turn their swords into pruning-hooks and 
ploughshares, I hope they will adopt better models than those 
of France; to this end their quadrennial exhibitions of manu- 
factures in this city will tend; at present, the Sandwich 
Islanders probably do not make or use ruder wheels, ruder 
carriages, or more primitive gearing, than some we tee 
here ; improvement seems not to have reached the lower 
classes; the differences between their position and the civi- 
lization, great scientific attainments, and polish, of the higher 
circles, with some of w^hom it has been our privilege to min- 
gle, marks an era in which the elements of change, of pro- 
gress, are at work ; but that they have not yet performed 
their mission is most evident. 

I attended the other day, by invitation of M. Arago, a meet- 
ing of the Institute of France, and saw the eminent men, who 
compose a body which in some senses dictates science to the 



164 FRANCE. 

world. Arago is secretary, and he dictates to the Institute. 
The session was numerously attended ; among others I saw 
the son of Jerome Bonaparte, permitted to remain here for a 
month ! It was something to meet Vaipeau, Drs. Louis, 
Berard, &c., in such close proximity. Doctor C. D. Meigs, 
of our city, read a paper before this august body. He was 
treated with marked respect, as has been the case in every 
circle where he has been introduced. I am as ever, 

Yours &c. 



LETTER XXV, 



Paris, June, 1845. 



Versailles — Handsome railroad depot — Seven miles and a half of pic- 
tures and statues — Portraits — Historical gallery — Mediorriij — Bona- 
parte's history — Louis Philippe's — The Chapel — Medals — Impres" 
sions created by battle scenes — ^The King's private garden — Toun- 
tains — Recruiis — Female ticket-sellers — Patches of land — Grapes — 
Farmers — Shepherd's dog. 

A TRIP to Versailles, by railroad, four French leagues, on 
a fine day, must be admitted to be one of the highest pleasures 
that can be offered to a foreigner. The depot is not very 
distant from our residence. It is one of the handsomest, if 
not the very best, we have seen, and the road is now under 
good regulations in every respect. The palace is to be seen 
on Sunday and two or three other days of the week only, so 
that the train carried down an immense number of people ; 
but the place is so large that they made no crowd in the 
rooms. An omnibus from the station carries you to the en- 
trance of ihe palace, through an old town going to decay, 
planted with elms which are trimmed on the sides next the 
houses and the streets, so flat that they are spoiled to my eye, 
though so perfectly are they kept that, to a person taught to 



FRANCE. 165 

admire this style, they must appear very beautiful. The 
entrance is through an iron gate and railing into a dry, dirty, 
paved court, in which are many colossal statues, and thence 
through unsightly points, you go at once into the long ranges 
of galleries, and paintings, and gilding, which comprise in the 
whole, seven miles and a half of indoors walking. We were 
extremely fatigued in performing this feat, sitting down rarely, 
and stopping only to admire those pictures which possessed the 
most beauty to our eyes, or the greatest historical interest. 
The floors are marble, or of inlaid wood, and waxed. As you go 
round wing after wing, fine views from the windows of gar- 
dens, orangeries, avenues, water, places where fountains play 
on Sunday, catch and arrest your attention. Some rooms are 
inlaid with marble from the ceiling to the floor; some of the 
hanging lamps are set with precious stones ; columns are all 
painted and gilt ; statues of all the great men of France, placed 
so as not to be crowded, many in marble, but others in plaster 
awaiting the completion of the harder material. Portrait 
galleries in which you stop to gaze on Laplace, Claude Lor- 
rain, Loyola, Rochefoucauld, Marie Stewart, Cromwell, the 
beauties of the court of Louis XIV., — Conde, — Georges 
Washington— not a good likeness, and taken in 1799 — Ma- 
dame de Sevigne, and thousands of others, fairly fatigue by 
their number and interest. Every thing is as clean as it is 
possible to keep it. Civil men in livery point at every turn 
which way to go. 

There are suites of rooms appropriated to the Crusade his- 
tories. Here you have a fine portrait of Peter the Hermit, 
GeofFroy of Boulogne, Coeur de Lion, and every body connected 
with those memorable events ; pictures of all the celebrated 
scenes, landinuf, fighting, — every thing ; while the ceilings 
are painted with their heraldric or armorial bearings, all his- 
torically correct, and in the brightest colours. 

The historical pictures, many of them of great merit, repre- 
sent the great battles of France by sea and land, from the 
earliest period. Those of the age of Louis XIV., are very 



166 FRANCE. 

numerous, both on splendid ceilings and in frames : the victo- 
ries of the Republic — the campaigns of Napoleon — (but there 
is no Waterloo) the events of the Empire — the Revolution of 
1880, and the reign of Louis Philippe to the present day, 
including the Algiers campaign. In these paintings men 
and horses are represented as large as life. There are sepa- 
rate rooms for admirals, for constables, marshals, and cele- 
brated warriors of France ; rooms for pictures of royal resi- 
dences of past ages, with costumes of the time ; then a gallery 
of statues, some in mail — mostly modern, and by no sculptor 
of great note. Quantity rather than quality, both in paintings 
and marble, seems to be the order of the present day, though 
the king replaces a poor article with a better, whenever he 
can do so, and he advertises for portraits which are correct 
likenesses, and purchases or copies them. He is endeavour- 
ing, at vast expense, to complete this national gallery ; but 
artists of merit are not to be found in sufficient numbers, so 
that to fill the walls, much of mediocre value is employed. 

There is a fine marble hall with a bronze statue of Napo- 
leon in the centre, surrounded by marble statues or busts of 
the whole of his family. All his great battles are strung 
about; many fine pictures from this series have been en- 
graved; you recognise or remember most of them — his 
bivouac at Wagram — visit to the old soldier at the Infirmary 
of the Invalides — at the tomb of Frederick the Great — the 
battle of the Pyramids — visit to the Pest-House at Jaffa — his 
coronation, by David, and that of Josephine. You see the 
whole of Louis Philippe's history, as a school-master teaching 
geography, up to his ascending the throne — with portraits 
constantly, all like him ; with his family — in the street — 
every where. Then you peep at the chapel with Gobelin 
tapestry for carpet — painted ceiling, gaudy and yet chaste 
according to French taste ; the bed-room of Louis, the bed 
covered with needle- work — some of his furniture. Now you 
look at a huge series of medals in the windows — you catch 
anon the siege of Yorktovvn, labelled Rochambeaa first, and 



FRANCE. 167 

Georges Washington — next, perhaps, some of Horace Vernet's 
fine pictures; look down upon an orchard of 1200 orange 
trees ; — you rest on a bench, and are informed that you are 
only about half through. 

What is the impression, you will say, of all these battles 1 
It sickens the heart to think that greatness can be achieved 
by such massacres as are here represented : — 

" The tumult of each sacked and burning village; 
The shout that every prayer for mercy drowns : 
The soldiers' revels in the midst of pillage, 
The wail of famine in beleaguered towns ! 

"The bursting shell, the gateway wrenched asunder; 
The rattling musketry, the clashing blade; 
And ever and anon, in tones of thunder, 
The diapason of the cannonade. 

*' Is it, O man, with such discord and noises, 
With such accursed instruments as these. 
Thou drownest nature's sweet and kindly voices, 
And jarrest the celestial harmonies?" 

Every battle scene has a general on horseback, directing 
the carnage, as the prominent object. Some steeple, fort, 
city, or country, correctly represented, a few portraits of well- 
known individuals, a dead man or dead men, cannons, drums 
— horses pierced or bloody, a wounded leg of arm, and there 
is the same story of cruel bloodshed. 

After coming from this place, with your head confused 
with historical recollections — the very scene where the in- 
furiated mob came to drag Louis XVI,, from his palace ; the 
room where the easy monarch, Louis XV., suffered Madame 
du Barri to sit on the arm of his chair in the presence of his 
council, and to fling into the fire a packet of unopened des- 
patches; the apartments of Marie Antoinette, &c., &c. ; after 
all this, it is a relief to turn and pluck a flower of nature's 
planting, even though it be but a daisy overshadowed by 



168 FRANCE. 

cropped hedges of elm, distorted yew trees, in the shape of 
haycocks, pillars, columns, squares, and long" straight avenues, 
clipped as nature never clips, but still beautiful in their way. 
The king's private flower-garden is in the same formal style, 
redolent of colours, and filled with perfume ; the roses are 
just opening ; and there are an hundred varieties of Flora's 
treasures in the greatest abundance, with which your Ame- 
rican eyes are but little acquainted. Then the basins for 
miles of fountains — frogs spouting at their queen (a woman), 
tortoises, horses, dragons, and every conceivable absurdity ; 
inferior, loose gravel walks, and poorer grass, for the sun here 
burns even more than with us ; and you emerge into a dusty 
street, where new recruits have been marched and counter- 
marched ever since you went in. 

These recruits must be a merry set ; every young man is 
compelled to serve seven years in the army, or find a substi- 
tute. As we came down on the top of the railroad coach, 
there were three decked out in tri-coloured ribbons, going to 
barracks to serve their term of duty ; they were as full of fun 
as boys ; sang and laughed as if they were going to a frolic. 
The guard took his share in their amusement, laughed and 
sang and joked all the way. It chanced that a thread of silk 
from a red ribbon, on one of their hats, flew out like a kite- 
string ; this amused their thoughtless minds as much as it 
would a little boy ; in fact, the facility of amusement in the 
people is so great, that a little dog, or the smallest trifle, seems 
fully to satisfy for the moment their vacancy. 

The women attend at the railroad ofiices to sell tickets, a 
very suitable occupation. The little patches of grapes and 
other matters of cultivation in little strips, make you ask over 
again how many proprietors of land there are in France ; the 
answer is ready, thirteen millions ! Fathers can no longer 
entail their estates, and these are cut up into lots, which in 
the landscape look like those in a cemetery, and there is no 
better comparison ; for they are in very large fields of miles, 
and each owner has a small patch not divided from his neigh- 



FRANCE. 169 

hour by even a furrow. In one is grapes, another has rye or 
wheat, another lucern, while the next is in garden vegetables, 
strawberries, or any thing the owner fancies. There must 
be great honesty among these near neighbours, or they never 
could get along in such close proximity. A number unite and 
employ a concierge at the entrance to protect their interests, 
and thus all seems to go on harmoniously. Some of the gra- 
peries are not large enough to make a barrel of vi^ine per 
annum. In these large subdivided fields, you see few houses ; 
the farmers must go a great distance to tend their crops, 
while the return must be very small. It is a novel mode of 
tilling the earth to us, and excites much interest among my 
young farmer companions, w^ho also are greatly entertained 
with the shepherd's dog ; he seems possessed of human in- 
telligence in the highest degree, having a kind of ubiquity 
and a knowledge of his duties that is beyond our compre- 
hension. He watches and controls the flock with a talent 
that is truly curious. 

Writing late at night, with eyes half shut, is not the best 
way to entertain you. As mine are almost fairly closed, I 
must only repeat how much I am 

As ever, yours, &c. 



LETTER XXVI. 



Paris, June, 1845. 



Jardin des Plantes — Mineralogical cabinet — Cuvier, Jussien, &c, — 
— Science patronised by the government — Contrasted with England 
— Collection of plants — Cabinet of comparative anatomy — Five 
courses of lectures — The garden — The Artesian well — The Crenelle 
— Champ de Mars — Hotel des Invalides — Napoleon's tomb— Fortifi- 
cations of Paris — Anecdote of an invalid. 

We have just made a visit to the Jardin des Plantes, under 
circumstances to insure us the kindest attentions, as well as 

15 



170 FRANCE. 

a view of the entire collections of natural history. Taken as 
a grand school for learning, it surpasses my expectations : in 
many particulars it is not only complete, but it is very showy 
for those who have not even a smattering- of the sciences ; 
this remark will apply especially to the new suite of rooms 
appropriated to the famous and superb collection of mineralo- 
gical and g-eological specimens. 

Give up your umbrella to enter the first gallery ; while you 
wait for the door to open, observe a neatly written placard on 
the wall, announcing to his class, that Jussieu's next botanical 
excursion with his pupils will be on the ensuing Sunday, to 
meet punctually at 8 o'clock, in the Bois de Bologne ; adjoin- 
ing-, read placards announcing the courses of lectures to be 
delivered by M. Milne Edwards, Brogniart, Beaugerard, and 
Gay-Lussac, names with which it is some distinction to be 
associated, even as contemporaries, but whom it is more 
satisfactory to have seen and heard them converse. 

The garden was founded by Louis XIII., in 1635 ; it has 
received generally, ever since, the fostering care of govern- 
ment ; and Cuvier, and Jussieu, and other learned men have 
passed their lives, and devoted their enthusiastic minds, to 
procuring, arranging, classifying, and naming^ the productions 
of nature in such a manner as to make the knowledge of 
their conformations and their properties so legible, that he 
who desires so to do, may read the book of nature, while he 
learns to admire and worship the great God of the universe, 
whose *plans have been carried out with such wonderful, such 
admirable perfection. The good sense of Bonaparte induced 
him to protect the men of science, who contributed so much 
to the glory of the nation ; Louis Philippe, who has resusci- 
tated Versailles, which is dedicated on two portals, " A toutes 
les gloires de la France," has consigned their portraits to his 
grand galleries ; hereafter it will not be a dispute with pos- 
terity, I trust, to which department, military or scientific, 
the greatest glory should attach. The amount of money 
appropriated by government to this institution is most munifi- 



FRANCE. 171 

cent ; it was never more flourishing than it now is ; the pro- 
fessors are all well provided for, so that they have none of 
the cares of money matters to distract their attention ; they 
are not eaten up with jealousy of a rival establishment, but, 
proud of the distinction which learning and science here con- 
fer, they are constantly on the alert to make every efibrt in 
their power for the advancement of their department. It is 
becoming a little so in England, but as yet there is not the 
proper consideration paid to talents of this kind there; again 
— the societies of Great Britain are now so cut up and divi- 
ded, that no one institution contains that centralization of 
talent which is here so prominent ; the old Philosophical 
Society in London is still the head, but the work is done in a 
hundred coteries out of its doors ; the honour of membership 
is still the great honour sought for, and to become initiated, 
you must have done something to entitle you to it ; here the 
honours are fewer and much more difficult of attainment. 

The institution of the Jardin consists of a botanical garden^ 
with spacious hot-houses, &c. ; several galleries in which are 
arranged scientifically, collections belonging to the different 
kingdoms of nature ; a gallery of comparative anatomy ; a 
menagerie of living animals ; a library of natural history, of 
great value ; an amphitheatre for public lectures, with labora- 
tories complete, for teaching every branch of science con- 
nected with natural history, the whole of the lectures being 
public and gratuitous. 

The garden of flowers is not intended to be for show, but 
for the benefit of science ; exotics are cultivated for the lec- 
tures, each kind having labels attached designating their 
class, use, or properties, by a different colour. The most 
beautiful trees of New Holland, the Cape of Good Hope, 
Asia Minor, &.C., are brought out of the green-houses this 
month ; the palm-houses contain larger plants than any in 
Europe. There are 12,000 species of plants cultivated in the 
botanical part of the institution. The menagerie portion is 
a large plot of ground with some fine animals, elephants, 



172 FRANCE. 

tapirs, monkeys, and some still more rare ; but as a whole, 
this department is not remarkable. 

Cuvier's cabinet of comparative anatomy, the best ever 
collected, is filled vs^ith skeletons of all the knovt-n animals 
of the globe; man figures here in various degrees of de- 
velopement ; the bones, strung together M^ith vi'ires, of Soli- 
man-el-Halley Bey, a learned young Syrian, who assassinated 
General Kleber in Egypt, is in the midst, in a case with 
negroes or Hottentots ; the varying conformation of the head, 
from the lower animals up to man, including the man of 
Etruria and Egypt, are all displayed. Detached bones fol- 
low : the hand, vertebrae, fishes, snakes ; one room is devoted 
to the muscles ; another to monstrosities ; while on the stairs 
are the fossil remains of antediluvian animals. The num- 
ber of specimens in this section alone exceeds 15,000. 

In the showy and complete mineralogical gallery are 
statues of Cuvier and Jussieu in marble — the great founders 
of systems — they are represented in the costume of the coun- 
cil royal of the Institute ; the first has the proudest of all 
inscriptions, the names of his immortal works. Some very 
large and perfect tables of Florentine mosaic are here ; a 
fine crystal of Icelandic a Icareous spar, a superb vase of 
brecciated porphyry, cups of agate, and so on, in countless 
variety. The galleries are occupied by fossil remains of the 
greatest value, and the whole as clean as a parlour. 

The garden is full of people, men, women, and children, 
playing, or lounging, or examining — some women sewing and 
minding their bairns, some gossiping ; and all happy and 
harmless to the surrounding objects : it is a sight such as no 
country I have ever seen can present. The great cedar of 
Lebanon, whose top-leader somebody destroyed while shoot- 
ing at a bird perched upon it, spreads its noble branches over 
other groups of happy idlers on one side ; happier school-girls 
are dancing in a ring, under a long drooping branch, admired 
by fifty older people, as content with the fine day and freedom 



FRANCE. 



173 



from work, as themselves. This noble tree was presented to 
the garden in 1734, by Peter Collinson, and was planted by 
the elder Jussieu. An interesting day is recorded at the 
Jardin des Plantes, which you must see, to love it ; for I re- 
member that all former describers, after devoting" more words 
to it than myself, failed to present to my eye its vivid living 
picture. 

I have in my possession the programmes of the entire pub- 
lic courses of lectures to be delivered in Paris, gratuitously, 
in the winter of 1845-6. As an evidence of the manner of 
carrying out the designs of a paternal government, for the 
instruction of its people, the plan has no parallel in any other 
land. There will be delivered by competent hands the fol- 
lowing courses, at the Sorbonne, &c. : 



Astronomy, 
Chemistry, 

Vegetable Organography, 
Calculation of Probabilities, 
Differential and Integral Cal- 
culations, 
Latin Eloquence, 
Sacred Literature, 
Philosophy, 
Latin Poetry, 
Hebrew Language, 
Ancient History, 
Modern History, 
Ecclesiastical Literature, 
French Poetry, 
Sacred Eloquence, 
French Eloquence, 
French Civil Code, 
Commercial Code, 
Medical Natural History, 
Medical Surgery, 

15^ 



Clinique d'Accouchements, 

Organic Chemistry, 

Pharmacy, 

Toxicology, 

Mechanics, 

Physical and Experimental 
Mechanics, 

Anatomy, Comparative Phy- 
siology, and Zoology, 

Botany, 

History of Ancient Philoso- 
phy, 

Literature of Foreign Coun- 
tries, 

Sacred Eloquence, 

Geography, 

History of Ancient and Mo- 
dern Philosophy, 

Greek Literature, 

Moral Theology, 



174 



FRANCE. 



Diseases of Women and Chil- 
dren, 
Chirurgical Patholog-y, 
Pharmacy and Organic Che- 
mistry, 
Physiology, 
Medical Pathology, 
Pathological Anatomy, 
Therapeutics and Materia 

Medica, 
Clinical Surgery, 



Dogmatic Theology, 
Institutes of Justinian, 
Institutes of Rome, 
Pandects, 
Rights of People, 
Penal Legislation, 
Vegetable Natural History, 
Mineralogy, 
General Chemistry, 
Applied Chemistry, 
Botany by Country Classes. 



Here are courses of public .instruction, which might be a 
model for other nations ; but it does not stop here. At the 
College of France and at the Royal Library, you may enter 
gratuitously to lectures on the following languages, in addi- 
tion to subjects strictly collegiate : 



Arabian Language, 
Persian " 

Turkish " 

Greek Language and Lite- 
rature, 
Hebrew " 
Chaldaic " 
Syriac *' -' 

Chinese " 
Tartar " 



Manchou Language, 
Sanscrit " 
European Languages, 
Chinese Vulgar Language, 
Arabian " " 

Malay " 

Japanese " 

Hindostanee " ** 

Modern Greek " 



We have visited the great Artesian well, and an abattoir 
adjoining, where they were employed in killing animals for 
the market, in clean, paved apartments : these latter are 
washed with the water flowing from the well. As soon as 
an ox is killed by hammering him on the top of the head, and 
then running a knife into his heart to bleed him, he is sub- 
jected to an inflation with a pair of bellows, in order to get 



FRAIVCE. 175 

his hide off more readily, and to improve tlie appearance of 
the meat ; we saw one puifed up to near the size of an ele- 
phant. 

The Artesian well was commenced in 1833 ; in February, 
1841, a little thread of water appeared, and soon after a 
powerful jet broke through the machinery, and M. Mulot's 
efforts of seven years and two months boring, were crowned 
with success : the temperature is 83^° of Fahrenheit. The 
boring instrument penetrated to the depth of IPOO feet ; once 
it broke at the depth of 1335 feet: incessant labour for four- 
teen months was required to recover it. The water rises in 
a tube of twelve inches bore to the height of 112 feet above 
the earth, yielding G60 gallons per minute at the surface, or 
half that amount at the top, where it runs over into other 
pipes, and is distributed to different points of the town, serving 
also the abattoir. We tasted the water, which is agreeable 
and wholesome. Here was assembled a party of two young 
men from India, with bronzed faces and Persian shawls, who 
spoke good English, two Englishmen, three Americans, a 
party of American Indians, and divers Frenchmen, all tasting 
the water raising itself from the bowels of the earth, the 
courteous French drinking our healths with their proverbial 
politeness, while we interchanged ideas with all, respecting 
our various travels. 

From here we drove to the Champs de Mars, a great dusty 
parade-ground, in front of the Ecole Militaire, where Napo- 
leon held the celebrated Champs de Mai, before the battle of 
Waterloo, and where Louis Philippe distributed their colours 
to the National Guards in 1830. It is the place for reviews 
and horse-races, and possesses the sad feature of very many, 
nay, most public places here, of absence of grass ; whitish 
sand, whitish stone pavements, and dust, give Paris a forbid- 
ding and ghastly look of a warm day ; just like what the 
traveller feels on the hottest turnpike in America, in a glar- 
ing sunshine, during the middle of August. Add the dirt and 
smells always when you think of this filthy city. 



176 FR A.NC E. 

We went thence to the Hotel des Invalides, where Napo- 
leon's body rests, but they have walled him up for the pre- 
sent, till the tomb is completed ; one million, five hundred 
thousand francs have been voted for this purpose ; a crypt is 
to be erected under the dome, of Corsican granite and French 
marble, distinguished for its severe simplicity, with the sword, 
hat, imperial and iron crowns, and the grand decoration of the 
Legion of Honour placed on it. Napoleon is a favourite with 
the people very generally ; they think that but for England, 
he would have made France the ruler of the world. To pre- 
vent any future invasion of their capital, the fortifications of 
Paris are completed, extending all around it, a distance of 
seventy-five miles ; the Chambers will probably vote for their 
being also manned, and then Paris, they think, could never 
be conquered. We ride through the openings of these forti- 
fications frequently ; they are no impediment to ingress or 
egress, the spaces for roads being left to be filled up on a 
sudden notice. The barriere for the collection of the octroi 
duty, is an iron gate in the streets, and our carriage never 
passes one without being looked into by a gens-d'arme to see 
if we have provisions ; these pay a duty of ten per cent., 
poultry, wine, and all. 

We were pleased with the appearance of the old Invalids 
at their grand quarters, with regulations like Greenwich ; 
though here, instead of ornamenting their bed-rooms, the old 
fellows have each a garden full of roses, a seat, or a bower. 
One old man has made his little eight by ten plot into repre- 
sentations of some of Napoleon's celebrated fields ; the fort, 
bridge, stream, mill, mounted cannon, and Napoleon's statue 
■, ery small — Lodi — Jena, &c. : and when you notice him, he 
pours a pitcher of water into a chimney ; the mill turns, foun- 
tains rise, and the eau irrigates a Napoleon willow from the 
tree at his St. Helena grave ; a few sous and a little praise 
make him very happy. . You see here the real mutilations 
made by firearms; some have lost both legs, and one or two 
have neither legs nor arms— a body and head only are left. 

Yours, &c. 



FRANCE. 177 



LETTER XXVII. 

Paris, June, 1845. 

Hotel de Vilje — Guillotine — Robespierre's council-room— Hotel de 
Sully — Notre Dame — The Madeleine — Alto relievo — Description — 
The Gobelin manufactory — Splendour of the articles — Contrast with 
England as regards fees — Louis Philippe — Anecdote. 

Do \'ou want to think over the horrors of the French Revolu- 
tion 1 Walk to the Hotel de ViUe, and the Place de Greve, 
or Gallows, not half an hour's stroll from our lodgings. The 
bloody Place, where the guillotine chopped off heads till the 
Seine, hard by, was itself gory with blood ; the same spot 
where the populace was so often assembled to dictate to its 
rulers, and where they were addressed by Louis XVI., with 
the cap of liberty on his head, is now a sunny, paved spot, 
about as large as one-fourth of Centre Square ; the Hotel de 
Ville is on one side, and shops of "Commerce de Vins," 
" Bonneterie," " Cafes," " Restaurant a Deux Francs," &c., 
&c., surround the other, where, I fear, walks daily in peace- 
ful times, a population, so excitable, that they only require 
some little grievance and a powerful leader, to commit any 
outrage upon the laws, did they think it likely to tend to their 
own advantage. The red-trousered gentry are so numerous 
now that unless they are first gained, not much could be 
done ; but treachery is to be calculated on, and they do cal- 
culate upon it. The death of Louis Philippe, it seems to be 
understood, will be the signal for some outbreak, and what 
part the soldiery will play, becomes an interesting question. 



178 FRANCE. 

A very grand building and a large, is the Hotel de Villa — 
the mayoralty of the twelve towns or departments of and 
about Paris ; the architecture is in the style of Italy in the 
16th century, a style known here as La Renaissance des 
Arts. It has a very imposing look with its ranges of nu- 
merous statues along the wall, its other sculpture, its bas- 
relief of Henry IV. over a gateway, its great clock, and enor- 
mous size. 

Enter and see the room where Robespierre held his council, 
and where the wretch afterwards shot his jaw off in his at- 
tempt to kill himself; think over the whole of the events 
which passed around this spot, and say whether you feel any 
great amount of sympathy with the picturesque people and 
shopkeeping women who are leisurely marching about in the 
sun, ready, as it seems to a stranger, to hang an obnoxious 
person to the next lamp-post. Some few of the rooms in the 
Hotel de Ville are worth seeing for their painted ceilings, 
but need not detain you long. 

Look for a moment, as you v/alk onward, at the Hotel de 
Sully, the residence of the celebrated minister, and enter the 
Place Royale, where formerly stood the Palais des Tour- 
nelles; here Charles VL had nearly lost his life at a bal 
masque ; and Henry II. received the wound in his eye at a 
tilting match, in consequence of which fatal event the palace 
was pulled down. It has now the air of a " square," but the 
planting is poor, and it is not well kept. 

Do not suppose that I have been so long in Paris and have 
not seen Notre Dame ; it so happened that it was one of the 
first places I drove to. After Rouen it disappointed me; 
Paul de Kock's description is exaggerated in all respects as 
regards the present structure ; it has had a curious history, 
having been patronised by various popes, prelates, &c., in- 
cluding Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who came to 
France to preach the third crusade, and who here officiated, 
only the other day, in 1185 ! The western front is the hand- 
somest, having the old retiring arches, angels, and figures of 



FRANCE. 179 

saints, bas-reliefs, allegorical sculpture, tracery, and dirt, for 
it is very old, and very little attention is paid to keeping it 
clean, either inside or out. The stained glass of the thir- 
teenth century has great interest ; but on the whole I was 
disappointed in the entire eiFect, probably from having formed 
too exalted ideas of its proportions. In relics, Notre Dame 
is what is called rich. The archbishop's palace formerly 
stood near, with its splendid apartments ; it was sacked and 
burnt by the mob, and its fine furniture and library thrown into 
the Seine. 

The Church of the Madeleine, the most modern of the 
great buildings of Paris, would require an architect to de- 
scribe it. The structure is somewhat like that of Girard 
College, much larger and having more columns and double 
rows at each end ; the defect to the eye, is the composition 
of these columns, which resembles mosaic from the stones 
being small ; but its whole ensemble is very beautiful, par- 
ticularly by moonlight. The pediment at the south contains 
an immense alto relievo, the largest in the world ; Christ in 
the centre, with Mary Magdalene at his feet, receiving 
remission of her sins, the angel of Pity contemplating the 
converted sinner. Faith, Hope, and Charity, regard the 
future scenes of bliss. A resurrection is going on, while on 
the left Vengeance puts away the Vices — Hatred, Unchastity, 
Hypocrisy, Avarice ; and a damned spirit is just sinking into 
an abyss, pushed on by a demon : an allegory not well exe- 
cuted, according to the severe rules of art. The great bronze 
doors, too, have scriptural allegories, while the interior of one 
nave, at present disfigured by scaffolding to erect an organ, is 
clean and white, with side chapels, bas-reliefs, angels, like 
huge women with great wings, and other rich marbles, and 
paintings. The ceiling over the altar is painted in fresco 
with elaborate designs, to represent the benefits conferred on 
mankind by Christianity ; without going into details, how 
would you like to see in Philadelphia, the Saviour, Mary 
Magdalene, St. Louis, Godfrey de Bouillon bearing the Ori- 



180 FRANCE. ^ 

flam me, Hichard Cceur de Lion, a blind old Doge, Mussul- 
mans, Otho, Jean d'Arc, Michael Angelo, and Dante, mixed 
into a church ceiling with Bonaparte 1 You may see it here, 
if you will come, and also witness a marriage in one part of 
the church, a confession in another, girls in white taking 
their first sacrament, women renting chairs, for which there 
is a printed " tariff," ladies going and coming, poor kneeling, 
and a high mass besides, all at once. This enormous church 
is warmed by hot water. 

Go with me now to the Gobelin tapestry manufacture, in 
a large building like a convent, and see the extraordinary 
productions of the loom, almost equal to the original paintings 
of which they are copies. In one, the boots of Louis Philippe 
actually appear to shine, though on approaching them you see 
it is the effect of light and shade. We saw some copies which 
had been nine years in the loom ; the progress is so slow that 
a few weeks makes scarcely an appreciable impression. Car- 
pets too are in progress to fit certain royal rooms, and the 
director has told the king that if he hurries, they may be done 
in five years. Perfection can no farther go. There are some 
fine copies of Horace Vernet's pictures exhibited — one, the 
murder of the Janizaries, is the finest thing imaginable as 
regards colour, light and shade, and perspective. A few 
smaller scenes are in frames as they were taken to the 
chateau of Eu, where a present of a fine piece was made to 
Queen Victoria as a specimen of French art; it surpasses 
any manufacture in England, but it is only maintained at 
royal expense. I would not have missed the Gobelins for any 
sight in Paris. There is a school of design, lectures on dye- 
ing, painters, &c., all connected with the establishment, which 
employs one hundred and twenty persons. The cuttings and 
fastenings are all performed at the back, the workman being 
on the wrong side, with the picture behind him. To exhibit 
your passport here, as at so many other places, is sufficient to 
gain admission, a civility by no means accorded in England, 
where the fee expected by every body in attendance amounts 



FRANCE. 181 

to an extortion. Money there is a passport, and no other is 
required ; it is of such great force as to have given rise to the 
saying of an American, that with plenty of it, he could kiss 
the Queen ; an assertion I would not have you credit. 

Louis Philippe is now getting old ; he rarely shows him- 
self in public : some attribute this to fear, some to prudence 
in not v/ishing to expose his new dynasty to danger ; fear he 
has not in his composition ; but fifteen attempts or so on a 
man's life must have the effect of giving him caution, and his 
family care. We have seen the royal carriages and four 
driving about sometimes, but rarely any of the family were 
visible. When we were last at Versailles, all the household 
was prepared to receive the king ; we waited to get a sight 
of royalty, when at a late hour a hussar trotted up, and said 
his majesty had gone to St. Cloud ; the officers in waiting 
were not particularly pleased ; the English assembled were 
provoked. Every where we encounter John Bulls and their 
hopeful families — thirty thousand of them are said to be now 
here, and but three hundred Americans ; the latter principally 
from the eastward, I should judge ; such is the influence of 
their proximity to the sea steamers. Neither English nor 
Americans receive any thanks for their custom generally ; the 
French consider these foreigners pay a tribute to the supe- 
riority of Paris by coming in such numbers ; the truth is pro- 
bably as the French have it. 

Ever, &c. 



16 



182 FRANCE. 



LETTER XXVIII. 

Paris, June, 1845. 

Napoleon and Josephine's house — His successive residences — Place 
Vendome — Napoleon's figure — Ciiapel commemorative of the Duke 
of Orleans — The painting representing his death — Expiatory ciiapel 
— Cemetery of Pere la Chaise — Ney — Cemeteries inferior to the 
American. 

I SPOKE in my last of historical associations, but did not men- 
tion the smallish house up a small court, which is still shown 
where Josephine and Napoleon lived. You may see the 
office of the future Emperor, a little larger than a watchman's 
box, and his little garret where he slept ; as. also the leftover 
a small coach-house occupied by Eugene, afterwards Viceroy 
of Italy; and Hortense's bed-room.* There is something ex- 
tremely interesting in these reconnaissances— to see the re- 
sidence of the grub before it becomes a butterfly, and rolls 
itself up in Gobelin tapestry. The successive residences of 
Napoieon are known, and are pointed out to strangers by an 
intelligent guide ; the contrasts between these old, dirty 
houses, and the palaces and pictures, is very striking, and not 
without its moral. Napoleon occupied the house, then No. 
52, Rue Chantereine, at the very time he assumed the com- 
mand of the army of Italy ; he returned to it preceded by 170 
standards, 550 pieces of cannon, and 60,000,000 francs ; in 

* Galignani. 



FRANCE. 183 

honour of which, the municipality voted to change the name 
to Rue de la Victoire. Here he received his appointment for 
the army of Egypt, and here also was planned the Revolution 
of the 18th Brumaire, which made him Dictator. When he 
was only general of artillery, he occupied, with his brother 
Louis and Junot, the fourth story of the Hotel des Droits de 
I'Homme, at a rent of seven dollars in specie a month ; thus 
you may follow his career by his residences, till you get to 
the Hotel des Invalides, where they are making his tomb. 

But you follow his military achievements on the columns 
and other buildings of Paris. Close to our dwelling is the 
Place Vendome, in the Rue de la Paix, one of the wide streets 
with elegant shops, so showy and attractive to the eye, that I 
loiter along it whenever I go to the garden of the Tuileries, 
to examine some novelty in art or manufacture ; the bronze 
model of the obelisk of Luxor, jewellery, false diamonds and 
other paste representations of precious stones, with their set- 
tings, strike you here, as they do in the Palais Royal, and 
every where else, as nearly equal to the originals they are 
meant to represent. But what is the Place Vendome ? Cut 
about twelve houses from each corner of Tenth and Chest- 
nut Streets — thus make an elongated octagon, which build all 
around with French houses with roofs like the top of the 
Tuileries, and porte-cocheres to drive under below ; pave the 
circle with square white stones, except the very centre — 
melt 1200 brass cannons taken from the Russians and Aus- 
trians ; mould them into a column 12 feet in diameter and 135 
in height — standing on a pedestal of much greater width, 
place a statue of Napoleon 11 feet in height on the top, and 
you have the Place Vendome. The metal employed in this 
column weighs 360,000 pounds; the bas-reliefs represent the 
dresses, armour, and weapons of the conquered troops ; these 
are on the lower part ; above them are garlands of oak, sup- 
ported by four eagles, one at each corner, and each of the 
weight of 500 pounds. At the double door of massive bronze, 
highly decorated all over its surface, sits an old soldier of 



184 FRANCE. 

Napoleon's, who for a trifle, gives you a lamp, and allows you 
to pursue your way up a narrow spiral escalier, in the heat, 
to the top. 

The bas-reliefs are continued in a spiral direction to the 
capital, figuring in chronological order, — they say, for you 
cannot easily ascertain it, and would not care to walk round 
and round it to do so, — the principal actions of Napoleon, to the 
battle of Austerlitz. The figures are three feet high, 2000 in 
number, and this vast scroll is 850 feet in length, having also 
inscriptions. Denon was one of the directors of the work, 
and a lady named Carpenter one of the sculptors. Nap has 
been once pulled from his pedestal, but is again replaced. To 
all appearance he has toppled over to the right a little, but 
this is explained probably by his position, with one leg ad- 
vanced. The whole cost of the column was 1,500,000 francs, 
a clever little sum, which you may compare with the cost of 
Van Buren's gilt spoons. 

I have just been to the new and very chaste little chapel 
erected by Louis Philippe on the spot where his oldest son, 
the Duke of Orleans, died from the effects of a concussion of 
the brain, occasioned by his fall from his carriage. He was 
picked up by the keeper of a small brandy-shop, and carried 
into his squalid apartments ; the king and his family were at 
their private palace of Neuilly, two miles from Paris and a 
quarter of a mile from the spot ; the king and queen, a phy- 
sician, Guizot, Soult, and others, were immediately sent for; 
the royal coaches not being in readiness, the family hurried 
over from Neuilly on fuot, but every effort to save the heir to 
the throne was vain. A chapel of one low story, paved with 
marble, and furnished with mourning-chairs, oratories, painted 
glass-windows, a statue of the dying duke, with an angel at 
his head executed by his deceased sister for another place, 
mark the spot, while in the rear, in a little room, is an accu- 
rate painting of his dying moments, even to the prints on the 
walls of the shop. The king is kneeling at his feet ; his 
mother is in deep distress, hiding her face in a handkerchief; 



FRANCE. 185 

the family is all assembled, Guizot, with his saturnine counte- 
nance, and old Soult, are looking on; the doctor is sponging- 
the temples of the dying- young man ; every thing is in keeping, 
and extremely affecting. 

As soon as the fate of the duke was known in Paris, the 
people collected in thousands on the Boulevards and on the 
streets to talk over the event, the town presenting the ap- 
pearance of an emeute, to the great alarm of foreigners. 
The dead body was carried over to Neuilly, and finally thirty 
leagues, to the family place of interment. Close by the little 
chapel is a suite of tw^o or three cottage-rooms, furnished in 
black, for the royal family when they visit the chapel, much 
in the style of a cottage in America, and looking much more 
comfortable than any palace I have seen. On one table stands 
a clock, stopped at a quarter past eleven, when the accident 
occurred, and on a mantel-piece another, also quiet, the hand 
marking the hour, a quarter past four, when he died. The 
whole thing is quite touching. The little auberge was pur- 
chased at a good price, the materials carried to Neuilly Park, 
where the queen means to have it put up as another memo- 
rial ; it will show that with all the splendour of the Gobelins, 
all the manufactures of Sevre, all the gilding and pictures, 
poor humanity, their heir, may die as others die, without being 
able by all this to arrest beyond nature's commands, the insa- 
tiate archer. As if to mark the successive strokes of fortune 
forcibly to our eyes, we met soon after a coach and four and a 
courier, with the little Count de Paris, now heir to the throne, 
taking a drive to St. Cloud, where the king is passing an 
hour or two to-day. We happened not to have our passports 
at hand at the gate of the chapel lodge, but our guide, never 
at a loss, was impertinent enough to assure the concierge that 
I was attached to the Irish embassy — a place not n]entioned 
in the Red Book. 

Another chapel of interest here is the Expiatory, where 
Louis XVI. was buried with his queen in 1793, in the ob- 
scurest manner. The spot w^as converted into an orchard by 

16* 



186 PRANCE. 

a partisan, to protect it, the graves being carefully noted. At 
the Restoration, the royal remains were taken to St. Denis ; 
the earth where he had been laid was carefully preserved, as 
were also the remains of other victims of the Revolution ; and 
the Chapelle Expiatoire was built by Louis XVIIl. This, 
with the pretty little chapel of Notre Dame de Loretto, will 
finish my tour of the churches ; in them is to be found, no 
doubt, much piety, but as to the manner in which this dis- 
plays itself, I confess myself not to be satisfied, nor can I be- 
lieve so much gilding, if any, so many paintings, so many 
royal heads and statues, are necessary to turn the heart to 
God. We see women confessing to the priests, but never 
men. 

The Cemetery of Pere la Chaise greatly disappoints me. 
It is large and has a very fine view of Paris from its heights, 
but nearly the whole place is dirty, or neglected. The monu- 
ments are of yellow stone mostly, very much out of taste, as 
we understand it; extremely numerous, and many of them 
badly constructed and tumbling about, while weeds disfigure 
many, many others. The mass of the monuments may be said 
to be little chapels, with a grated door, an altar inside, can- 
dlesticks, a chair or two, while the wreaths of immortelles, 
artificial flowers, vases, flower-pots, old China, or gewgaws, 
are pictures of distorted grief In one or two instances, a 
bust was dressed up in immortelles with ear-rings, the flowers, 
and face too, by time made as black as a negro's. When 
there is no chapel, a painted half-circle of tin runs across 
from one iron railing to the other, to protect the wreaths from 
wet ; and here there are sometimes two dozen strung up, 
some being made of whalebone frizzled in the manner of 
the British lawyers' wigs, and the rest of flowers. Very 
queer vases with flowers are sometimes seen ; occasionally a 
good rose bush or honeysuckle overruns the little plot, shaded 
may be, on each side by chapels. Some monuments are very 
lofty and costly; among the latter are those of Casimir Per- 
rier, and some of Bonaparte's marshals. Ney has no name on 



FRANCE. 187 

his grave, that privilege having been denied to the family of 
a proscribed man ; but some one has scraped the little word 
in the paint of the railing with a pin ; it has more celebrity, 
and is more visited than the most costly inscriptions. 

A road winds about the cemetery, paved with square stones, 
which are much used and very dusty. Interments of persons, 
of all sizes, ages, and degrees, from the little infant of poor 
parents carried on a shabby bier to the place for those who 
cannot, or will not, pay for the ground in perpetuity, to the 
soldier whose grave they were firing over, or the nobleman 
attended by a host of followers, I have seen performing at the 
same moment. The funerals are extremely numerous every 
day, bat no statistics were to be obtained. Altogether the 
aspect of the place was that of a city of the dead, not of a 
rural cemetery : I have seen none in Europe that will com- 
pare with the best at home for beauty of scenery, careful 
keeping or planting. The two best in England are very in- 
ferior in these important respects : I mean the St. James's at 
Liverpool, and Kensall Green near London. 

Yours truly, &c. 



LETTERXXIX. 

Paris, Jane, 1845. 

Chamber of Deputies — Appearance and members of note — Manners — 
House of Lords — Lord Brougham — The Morgue — Banks of the Seine 
— Firewood — The Cocoo — The cab-gig — Sleepy drivers — Prices — 
The " turn-ouls" — French private life — Dinners — Versailles — Jerome 
Bonaparte's son — Trianon — Bonaparte's furniture — Petit Trianon — 
Evening with the royal family. 

Before going any further let me tell you that I have seen 
the Chamber of Deputies, an extremely well-constructed 
room. A plan of it is sold at the door, on which the name of 
every member is printed on the relative place of his desk, so 



188 FRANCE. 

that with a little study you may learn who is speaking", and 
get a view of faces that you know a little of; in this way I 
got my first peep at Guizot, Lamartine, Larochejaquelin, 
Arago, a legislator as well as a savant, old Marshal Soult, 
Duchatel, Salvandy,and Sauzet, the President. The discussion 
was on the Budget, and very animated ; some cutting re- 
marks fell from the opposition members respecting the Na- 
tional Guard; whenever a severe thing was said, the other 
side burst out into a denial, all talking at once. The 
accommodations for visiters are convenient, being in tri- 
bunes, like large boxes in a theatre, and here ladies are to 
be seen in numbers, differing in this respect from the House 
of Commons, where they have to peep through a blind in the 
back of the gallery, like the women in a harem. I was so 
badly treated at the Commons by the officials, was obliged to 
stand, or sit on a low step, that I believe I did not describe it 
to you ; I listened at the House of Lords for an hour to Lord 
Brougham, enforcing by good argument the necessity of re- 
pealing the present laws regarding deeds, and urging that 
the long parchments should be done away with, by using but 
a few lines ; — shortening the old legal absurdity of repetitions, 
will be an improvement. 

The Chamber of Deputies is composed of four hundred and 
fifty-nine members, chosen by the electoral colleges of each 
department for five years. A deputy must be a native of 
France, thirty years of age, and have paid five hundred francs 
(one hundred dollars) a year, in direct taxes. The voters 
must be twenty-five years of age, and have paid two hundred 
francs in direct taxes. The Deputies are prf>«)gued, as well 
as the Chamber of Peers, and the former is dissolved at the 
pleasure of the king. In case of dissolution, a new Chamber 
must be elected and convoked within three months. 

One of the curious sights of Paris is the Morgue, or dead- 
house, where the numerous persons drowned in the Seine are 
exposed to public view for recognition ; I have frequently 
looked into it in passing, and but once without seeing one or 



FRANCE. 189 

more miserable bloated objects, with a crowd gazing- on. To- 
day there were two in a state of decomposition. They are 
separated from the spectators by a glass partition, so that you 
have no bad odour, and are laid in a slanting position, nearly 
naked, with a slight jet of water from a hydrant always run- 
ning over them, — their clothes, when they are found with any 
on, being hung up beside them ; here they are left for three 
days, and if not claimed, are buried. The average is about 
one a day, mostly males ; the spot is on the banks of the 
Seine, near a bridge, in the heart of the city ; one is puzzled 
to know what species of curiosity it is that so constantly at- 
tracts the poor people here ; is it morbid, or is it mostly to see 
who of their acquaintances have so carelessly thrown off this 
mortal coil and entered unshriven the unknown world ] The 
French of the lower orders, it would seem, have no great 
dread of death ; they amuse themselves as long as possible, 
and when the ability to do so any longer fails, throw them- 
selves into the river. The sight of these distorted counte- 
nances is most melancholy, their blackening flesh sometimes 
falling from the bones ; but one by degrees gets accustomed 
to it, and we look on without getting the " horrors" as at first. 
The banks of the Seine here nowhere present any signs of 
commerce; baths for the men and women separate, are 
moored about in great numbers, while structures very similar 
are constantly in view, occupied by the busy washerwomen, 
beating the clothes with a paddle ; they return your clothes 
very clean and neat, at moderate charges. Little boats are 
moored near the shores, or rather walls — for the Seine is 
walled in so as to look like a great canal — with water-wheels 
in motion turning machinery for mixing colours for dyers and 
paper-hangers ; dyers are washing their blue cottons ; a black- 
smith establishes his forge here and there when there is 
ground sufficient below the wall, but the river presents little 
animation. Below and above the town, rafts of small wood, 
built up so as to form little streets and covered ways, are 
breaking up, the wood, a precious article, being sold to little 



190 F K A N C E. 

shop keepers at about forty dollars a cord. We have had a 
fire once or twice, in a most amusing fire-place, with a queer 
blower to let down in sections, but could procure no warmth 
from it ; the wood in lengths of nine inches, and very dear. 

The oddest vehicles drive about Paris ; the cocoo, an omni- 
bus on two wheels, and with one horse, traverses the suburbs, 
principally filled with peasantry, or common people, and 
in picturesque caps and hats. The cab-gig is the most awk- 
ward public conveyance for gentry ; it is a very old-fashioned 
gig on leather springs, the seat wide enough for three, one of 
whom is usually the fat driver. If you want to be in close 
contact, of a warm day, with this animal, enter it once, smell 
his garlic breath, and for ever eschew his society. As soon 
as you are set down by a cab-driver he goes fast to sleep ; you 
must rouse nine out of ten of them from this state ; if they 
wait for you, it takes some time to get them in motion again. 
They all wear a peculiar blue dress, with a kind of nasty 
livery, and a laced hat. One good regulation is worthy of 
imitation— on entering a public vehicle, each driver is required 
by law to give you his printed number, so that if you leave 
any thing in the carriage you can get it again, or if any com- 
plaint is made to the vigilant police, it is in your power to 
complain knowingly, without the necessity of doing as the 
old clergyman's wife in the Ayrshire legatees j she had beard 
that if a hackney coachman cheated her she was to take his 
number, and was provoked to find she could not detach it 
from the coach ! The charge for cabs is less than with us ■ 
forty cents an hour is an average; but they drive most pro- 
vokingly slow ; their coaches are generally close, and other- 
wise not of the best construction, though one kind, called a 
" remise," with civil drivers and good horses, at sixty cents 
an hour, are to be met with. 

The *' turn-outs" in Paris are not to be compared in finish or 
beauty to those of London. The servants are ill-looking, and 
badly dressed; the whole vehicle and its appurtenances being 
greatly inferior. The favourite blue of the French is the 



FRANCE. 191 

feshionable colour for coaches. Ladies drive about in very- 
comfortable carriages to visit, shop, and take the air ; while 
a dashing young Parisian, with an imitation tiger is seen fre- 
quently displaying his horsemanship in the Elysian Fields — 
the tiger sometimes fast asleep beside his master ! The 
rumble behind a family coach is occasionally occupied by a 
woman servant, who has been probably taken out to a country- 
seat to cook or wait on the family. Thus, on the whole, the 
style in the street is a different and inferior affair to that of 
England, where every thing is complete. 

As to French private life, a short residence does not enable 
me to speak at large. What I have seen presents the aspect 
of great gentility, and in some respects, comfort, according to 
a code of their own. The dinners are deliberately eaten, 
without any apparent care on the part of the lady of the 
mansion (or rather floor.) Course follow course so slowly, 
that you have time to get hungry between them, and the ser- 
vants have time to perform the changes quietly and well. 
The S5''stem of courses differs from ours or the English. Fish 
sometimes follows the meats ; often a fish mayonnaise or salad, 
particularly just now ; the salmon would satisfy Apicius. 
Wine is as essential to every dinner as water with us ; it is 
generally claret. The white wines are too cold, while a good 
glass of Madeira or sherry is too rare. The utmost ease and 
bonhomie prevails, without attempts at great depth of remark, 
or a hope to create a sensation. The children of the family 
are brought in nicely dressed ; they form a pleasant portion 
of the circle, with their natural, playful manners, and are 
often highly accomplished in many branches of education. It 
would, I am convinced, require a residence of more than a 
year or two to understand French modes of living, much less 
their habits of thoug-ht. 

We have had another visit to-day to Versailles, to see the 
whole again. Jerome Bonaparte's son was inspecting the 
galleries as we also went through. When he came to the 
pictures of his uncle's battles, bivouacs, &c., I thought a 



19? FRANCE. 

quiver of the lip indicated sometimes that feelings were at 
work in which thwarted ambition had its share. He bears a 
strong family likeness to the Emperor. 

We had a fine opportunity of inspecting the grounds and 
gardens ; the avenues, all alike, planted with elm trees, kept 
low and trimmed into a fine hedge, have an abominable stiff- 
ness. The effort is not at variety but similarity ; the foun- 
tains were playing. A book of prints would be required to 
explain how the water is thrown up into figures of classical 
beauty. We went over the Trianon Palace, and also the 
Petit Trianon, a mile or so from Versailles, and saw the most 
private apartments of the King and Queen, and at the latter 
those of the Duchess of Orleans, who rarely visits it, however, 
since the death of her husband. The king's dwelling here 
has an air of domesticity and even comfort and privacy, 
strikingly in contrast with Versailles and the larger palaces. 
The furniture at Trianon is very French : — red, white, and 
gold ; some of it the same used by Bonaparte ; and here we 
saw Napoleon's little sleeping-room. The library, small, but 
neat, contained several good and serious books, such as 
Pascall's Thoughts, but more commonly the works were his- 
torical. The King and Queen's bed-room is small; it is 
shown just ready for their use ; a small kneeling chair is at 
the side of the bed, covered with crimson velvet, a favourite 
material here in most houses. The palaces are crowded, like 
the private houses, with clocks in every room, and often two, 
beating in this respect the Americans. 

The Petit Trianon is rather small and plain for the resi- 
dence of the heir of the throne ; not comparable indeed to 
some private houses I have been in ; but here the Duke and 
Duchess of Orleans enjoyed domestic life, it is said, in perfec- 
tion. The grounds are laid out in the English style, or 
intended so to be, but a clipped avenue now and then shows 
itself. In a wood is a complete theatre, to which the Parisian 
actors were brought occasionally to exhibit to a small party. 
In this chateau, as in all the larger, a fine billiard-room is to 



FRANCE. 193 

be remarked. The Duchess is said to be a mourning widow, 
and well she may be, for she has lost a husband and the near 
prospect of being Queen of France. She receives the kindest 
attentions from Louis Philippe, whose domestic relations 
appear, from every account, to be very happy. We are told 
that to pass an evening with the family would be to find them 
employed much as educated people are elsewhere, in music, 
embroidery, reading or conversation ; perhaps surrounded 
with eminent talent consulting on works of public utility, art, 
or affairs of the day. The occupations of royal personages 
and those of people of refinement in more humble life, must 
be much alike ; but our youthful impressions of royalty are 
hard to shake off. The best way to do this is to see great 
people at home ; the next best is to view their apartments, 
vacated but yesterday, and just as they left them. 

The furniture of the greater Trianon in the lower saloons 
is much faded, especially the curtains. I am certain that 
some were so shabby and torn that you would not allow them 
to remain in your bed-room ; they were actually in large 
holes. Cleanliness, however, presides every where ; the 
floors are carefully waxed and rubbed. In one suite you see 
the little, royal bath-room — the bath-tub itself in the form of 
a sofa without ends ; the top lifts off and it is a bath. A sit- 
ting-room is often also a bed-room, with a mattress covered 
with silk, the bed-clothes taken away in the daytime. We 
have much to learn in America in regard to the economy of 
space. At the Trianon, the apartments of the king's sister 
are not wider than many an entry in Philadelphia, but emi- 
nently snug and comfortable ; such in size as I would hereafter 
covet. Some of the reception rooms are not as large as your 
parlour, but large enough. Cold indeed are the great palaces ; 
but comfortable and nice is this dwelling of royalty. 

Yours, &c. 



17 



194 FRANCE. 



LETTER XXX. 



Paris, June, 1845. 



Contrasts — Armed police — Secret police — Determine to visit Mont 
Blanc, &c. — The medical schools — Musee Dupuytren — Charlotte 
Corday — Secondhand shops — Pantheon — The monuments of Rous- 
seau and Voltaire — Marshal Lannes — The echo — The fabriques — The 
flower season—Place de la Baslille — Column of July — Viscount 
D'Arlincourt — Academy of Fine Arts — School of the Fine Arts- 
Louvre. 

I BID not contemplate remaining so long here : but a month's 
residence serves only to show you how little you know of a 
place where maimers and habits of thought, institutions and 
government, differ so widely from your own. Contrast, for 
instance, the great assemblages of peaceful citizens every 
where in America, in the pursuit of electing a President, 
marching, countermarching, with drums and cymbals, and not 
a policeman in attendance, — with the manner in which things 
are conducted in Europe ; here, armed police in the garb of 
soldiers are in attendance wherever the smallest crowd is ex- 
pected. Every theatre is guarded by a great number to 
enforce order among the people going, coming, or sitting as 
audience : the end of the street where they are to disperse is 
guarded by mounted horsemen prepared to do battle. The 
President of the Chamber of Deputies enters his hall through 
a double row of armed men, with beat of drum : every avenue 
to the gardens of the Tuileries has one or more guards, who, 
by the by, will not allow any one to enter carrying a bundle, 



FRANCE. 195 

or smoking a cigar, and who wage constant war on little 
dogs. No city that I have been in is free from this swarm of 
locusts, who meet you every where, day and night ; the prin- 
ciple seeming to be that it is better to counteract crime than 
to have to punish it. A secret police, too, is maintained, who 
prowl about, and are probably watching even us. We have 
been through several forms of viseeing our passports already; 
what I have got to encounter in this particular is yet unknown 
to me. 

Finding myself so near to Mont Blanc, and being advised 
not to reach America before I could be certain the heat of 
summer had somewhat abated, I have concluded to visit 
Geneva, Chamouni, and the interesting portions of the route 
thence to the Rhine — look in upon the German watering 
places, inhale a few bubbles, made so refreshing to home 
travellers by Sir Francis Head ; visit Brussels, Antwerp, 
Ostend, for an early embarkation; a tour to Scotland to be 
also accomplished if time permits. To be able to perform 
this little journey to the Rhine, about as much in trouble as 
going to the Rocky Mountains, and in distance a little more 
than going to Cincinnati, — my valet de place has danced 
attendance on the Swiss, Sardinian, German, and Belgian 
consuls, to say nothing of our kind American Ambassador, 
Mr. King, till he is daily too much fatigued to attend me in 
my excursions. Then I had another difficulty that promised 
at one time to defeat me entirely. On repairing a week ago 
to the office of the malle poste (mail), I was coolly informed 
that every place was engaged for five weeks. I repaired to 
the office of the slower Diligence, whose time of day or night 
of crossing the finest portion of the scenery of the Jura could 
not be accurately ascertained. There was, however, a single 
seat, and that the best one in the banquette, or upper covered 
story, vacant a week hence, and I immediately secured it. 
My son, wearied with lionizing, and scarcely able to encounter 
the fatigues of this tedious but most fascinating route, has 
returned to England, where the climate is now warmer, and 



^ 196 FRANCE. 

where he hopes to regain the strength lost by an attack of 
fever here. I am thus about starting on a trip requiring 
some energy of body and mind, alone. 

When you come to Paris do not neglect to visit the medical 
schools, witness the students hacking away at the dead bodies 
of human beings and domestic animals for the benefit of 
science ; do this if you want to lose your day's dinner, of a 
warm day especially — but do not omit a sight of the Musee 
Dupuylren, founded by a bequest of two hundred thousand 
francs from that eminent surgeon. It is in the refectory of 
an ancient convent of Cordeliers, and is well fitted up to re- 
ceive specimens of pathological anatomy — or rather wax 
representations of the most horrible appearances which the 
human body assumes in a state of disease. To a medical man 
this must be a place of the greatest interest, for to a mere 
general observer it offers strong attractions. The thousand 
natural ills that flesh is heir to, but most especially the diseases 
which dissipation engender, are here exposed in their abhorred 
nakedness : — a lesson to the young, and a study for the old. 
The French probably stand at the head of certain departments 
of medicine and surgery, and the government kindly imparts 
the knowledge of its savans gratuitously to all who will listen. 
The common people may, and do learn at the public lectures 
something of the wonderful structure of their corporeal frame, 
being better informed on these topics than our own people, 
for they all seem to be more or less attracted to hear ; women 
obtain information which is extremely useful, and they make 
and trade in wax representations of the human form, which 
our females would not be known to have looked upon, much 
less to sell them personally to the other sex. But, as I said 
before, another code prevails here on most subjects, from that 
existing among us. 

Not far from the Musee, Charlotte Corday stabbed the 
monster Marat in his bath, in 1793. I have been to the 
house, now occupied by a printer, whose sheets are spread 
out in the very room of the bath. The neighbourhood con- 



FRANCE. 197 

sists of very old houses, some going to decay, occupied with 
every variety of shop ; among the latter do not fail to enter 
some of those which have rroccasion on them, indicating 
secondhand goods, old china, of which great quantities are for 
sale in many parts of Paris, old bronzes, old chairs, covered 
with tapestry, which look as if they might have been thrown 
out of a palace during the Revolution ; you may buy a good 
old Louis Quatorze clock, striking and chiming, for a few 
dozen francs, and ornament your cabinet of antiquities with 
engravings of the pastoral scenes now invaded by steamboats 
or railroads, and gone quite out of fashion since the introduc- 
tion of the waltz and the Polka; the only rural representative 
left is my favourite, the shepherd's dog ; the crook nov/ is a 
gun, and the shepherd who gathers in the flock of^ Paris at 
least, wears a sword and mustaches, an ugly cap and red 
trousers. 

I stopped to-day a second time at the Pantheon, and went 
down cellar to see the monuments of Rousseau and Voltaire ; 
they are now of wood, though it is intended to replace them 
with marble ; it may be hoped that the public money will be 
turned to better objects. Marshal Lannes, Duke of Monte- 
be] lo, has a tomb here, presented to him by Bonaparte, all to 
himself Mirabeau and Marat got into these Pompeian-like 
tombs, but were cast out by the National Government. A 
few others of more or less note have resting-places here ; but 
it does not appear to prosper as a cemetery. The most re- 
markable thing, if thing it be, is an echo, which the guide 
produces till you almost fear the very dead will be awakened. 
The building is a noble one, of stone and marble inside and 
out, and with some fine sculpture; but its use seems to have 
gone out of fashion. The names of those who fell in the 
Revolution of 1830 are emblazoned in gold letters on piers 
of masonry supporting a noble dome. 

In passing about, one is constantly tempted to look in upon 
the fabriques dispersed every where about Paris. I have just 

17* 



198 FRANCE. 

been to see the exposition of a papier mache manufactory, 
which offers many objects of beauty. 

It is the flower season ; every few feet you meet old womei 
assorting the richest bouquets of moss and other roses, pan- 
sies, and beautiful nosegays. There seems to be a sale for all 
that are brought, shops being appropriated for them in every 
street, and venders are continually plying you with bouquets 
for a few sous. The poorer rentiers, or owners of a little 
patch of ground, sedulously cultivate their plots, and are seen 
wearied and dusty, marching to a dealer, with little baskets 
of cherries or strawberries, to procure a few francs for their 
labour; a country boy will be seen now and then in his blue 
blouse, assorting his berries on a bench, intent upon his oc- 
cupation, unobserved by the passers and unobserving of any 
thing but his assortement. One can only regret that the 
grapes, so promising, and mounting the very windows of the 
office of the police, where we had to go to show the colour 
of our noses and eyes, are not ripe. 

The Place de la Bastille is a large, paved, open square, 
with the Column of July on the site of the Bastille. The 
lower part of the present column was commenced by Napo- 
leon, and rests on an immense arch thrown over the canal, 
formerly the moat. The column itself is surmounted by a 
gilt globe; on this stands a colossal figure, the Genius of 
Liberty, blowing a trumpet, in itself any thing but orna- 
mental. The inscription is — " To the glory of the French 
citizens, who armed themselves and fought for the defence 
of public liberty in the memorable days, the 27th, '28th, and 
29th of July, 1830," — the same who are recapitulated in the 
Pantheon, and v.'hose names to the number of five hundred 
and four, are again inscribed on this lofty column. It is 
pleasant to see canal-boats passing through the moat of the 
prison, whose dungeons are so permanently destroyed ; it is 
a little startling at first to meet omnibuses placarded with the 
word Bastille^ to which Place they run from several quarters. 



FRANCE, 199 

I have visited the Viscount D'Arlincourt, whose "Three 
Kingdoms" were published last January in Philadelphia. He 
is living in Paris and continues to write. He a?sured me of 
his intention of seeing the United States before very long ; 
he will doubtless produce a book about America, in which 
there will be much that is French. He says that the de- 
scendants of the Stuarts — so favourably mentioned by him, 
are now in Edinburgh; and that their Catholic friends are 
confident of their lineage. 

The Academy of Fine Arts, in the Luxembourg Palace — 
where sits also the Chamber of Peers — is a most attractive 
place to strangers; — here are the best modern paintings which 
have received the prizes, but which must not be introduced 
to the palaces while the painter still lives. Horace Vernet's 
great picture, so Vv^ell copied at the Gobelins, of the Murder 
of the Janizaries, is now exhibited, together with a number, 
remarkable every one of them, for some beauty. The light, 
and shade, the position of the figures, their nakedness^ or their 
historical interest, all serve for recommendations ; generally 
it requires all these, except the nudity, which, however, ap- 
pears to be rather approved than otherwise. The outcry 
made in the United States about the picture of Adam and 
Eve would not receive in Paris more than a passing sneer if 
it were related. The French style of painting is extremely 
showy — it tells its story truly, and its attention to detail gives 
it value ; but it is not of the highest order, and w^Mild shock 
the fastidious. 

The School of the Fine Arts possesses also some modern 
as well as antique treasures ; but after the Louvre, Palais 
Royal, and Versailles, we were not particularly attracted by 
them. 

If I have not undertaken to describe the Louvre, its great 
treasures of ancient and modern art, its superb ceilings, — on 
one of which William Penn is emblazoned with illustrious 
cotemporaries, — its Marine Museum, with the finest and 
cleanest models in the world, including Norris's model of his 



200 FRANCE. 

steam locomotive, — attribute my forbearance to modesty — if 
you choose, to incompetency. It has often delighted my 
uneducated eye, but I have not time for doing it justice; as 
soon as this letter is closed, I enter the Diligence for the Jura 
and Geneva. 

Yours, &c. 



SWITZERLAND. 



LETTER XXXI. 



Geneva, June, 1845. 

Leave Paris— The banquette— The road— Average speed — Meal-times 
— Companions — Carriage dogs — Appearance of the country — Solilude 
— Ascent of the Jura — The road — Scenery — St. Laurent — Passports 
Douane de France — Descent of the mountain — Extraordinary beauty 
of the scene — Zig-zag road — Geneva — Lalie Leman — The Rhone — 

Hotel des Bergues — Chateau of Mons. Ferney — Voltaire's 

residence — The house and grounds. 

I LEFT Paris without regret, for its sight-seeing" and our 
mode of living there had become wearisome after the prin- 
cipal objects had been examined. My place au premier in 
the banquette of the Diligence was a real luxury. When 
you are in America and think of going to Geneva, you pro- 
bably imagine that it will prove a great journey, for so have 
written the bookmakers. It is a slow mode of getting over 
the ground, but I reached this beautiful place with less fa- 
tigue than we encountered, only a few years ago, in going 
from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh by stage ; two days and 
nights, and nine hours, lands you here, through Dijon and 
Dole; the Jura mountain is to be passed; it is not a great 
impediment. 

The road all the way from Paris is as nearly perfect as it 
is possible to be, mostly paved in the centre with square 
blocks of stone ; our heavily loaded carriage, with nineteen 
human beings, a dog, and a pile of trunks that would frighten 
a steamboat captain, made its way, on an average of up hill 



204 SWITZERLAND. 

and down, at the rate of five miles an hour, with very few 
stoppages, and those for a very few minutes, the horses being 
changed with great celerity. Meal-times seemed to be regu- 
lated by some caprice of the owners of the line, for we break- 
fasted one day at half past one o'clock, and dined at twelve at 
night ; the journey was to me, however, one of uninterrupted 
enjoyment. My companions, generally Genevese, speaking 
onlyFrench, were agreeable and communicative ; we changed 
from interieur to coupee^ and from covpee to banquette, as the 
humour of each directed ; then w^e walked up hill in company 
with the passengers of another Diligence, a rival line, which 
kept just before us all the way to Dole, and to pass which 
was forbidden us by law. The horses are large and strong, 
but so slowly do they walk that it is painful at first to wit- 
ness it ; the drivers understand their business, and the con- 
ducteurs are attentive. Our most amusing passengers were 
the little white carriage dogs on the top, who assumed the 
duty of keeping w^atch, barking at all other dogs on the road ; 
one would sometimes be brought down to us by his owner, 
the conducteur, who never travels without such a quadruped ; 
a most intelligent and companionable little fellow he is. He 
and his master take their meals with us, in the hurried in- 
tervals devoted to this department. The dog, who came with 
us nearly two hundred miles, showed the greatest antipathy 
to the one on the other carriage, and kept up a constant, in- 
efiective, and amusing controversy. 

Our route through Burgundy and Franche Compte, would 
not lead a traveller to suppose there was in France so many 
as thirty millions of inhabitants ; no part of the road is thickly 
settled, though it is all, apparently, under cultivation, growing 
winter grain, the grape, English walnuts, and a few other 
productions. Women do all but the ploughing, which latter 
amounts to a little more than scratching the ground with an 
awkward instrument, drawn by three horses tandem, and 
having a pair of wheels at the forward end ! Queer enough, 
till you get used to seeing it. 



SWITZERLAND. 205 

The women and children, and often the men, wear the awk- 
ward wooden shoe ; the former are seen on little donkeys, 
with panniers made of willow, but a remarkable absence of 
inhabitants strikes you, till in some places the silence is ter- 
rible ; it seems as if the people had planted the ground, a fire 
had destroyed the houses, and a pestilence had swept away 
the inmates. Families dwell in clusters off from the high 
road, the French character being one that requires society ; 
they seem to maintain little intercourse with the rest of the 
world ; our lumbering coach never stops to deliver a package, 
or is welcomed by some expectant family, anticipating the 
arrival of one of its members. We are all booked through to 
Switzerland, though to different parts, for at Dole the road 
separates us, some going to Neuchatel, and some to Geneva. 
We there took a smaller Diligence, and in a few hours began 
to ascend the mountain chain of the Jura. As we did so, we 
were met by trains of poor wagons, bringing down wood about 
as large as a man's wrist, and sometimes at a chalet two men 
were using a cross-cut saw to divide this heavy timber. 

Day broke fully at three o'clock, and scenes of great beauty 
presented themselves constantly. Deep gorges on one side, 
filled with trees, principally the arbor vitee, with occasionally 
a waterfall ; on the other, a high wall of natural rock ; the 
road is extraordinarily good ; the men are paid by government, - 
(there are no toll-gates in France,) and are constantly em- 
ployed in keeping it in repair ; there is a gutter, along the 
foot of the rocks, for fifty miles, while very often there oc- 
curs a system of underdrainage, the water being carried under 
the road, and down into the valley. Cultivation, wherever it 
is practicable, is carried on ; beautiful slopes, and valleys, and 
villages occur frequently, while several smart towns on the 
route, attest the capability of the Jura to support animal life. 
The whole distance was cheered by most superb bushes of 
yellow laburnum in full flower, hanging their rich clusters 
over us, or seen in the distances below. Wild flowers of 
beautiful colours, enlivened the v/ayside ; rain fell, occa- 

18 



206 SWITZERLAND. 

sionally, for a few minutes, and was immediately succeeded 
by bright sunshine, and a rainbow, and then we could see the 
clouds making, and rising- below us. We breakfasted, as 1 
said before, at half past one o'clock p. m , at t?t. Laurent, on 
the top of the Jura, and had soup, mountain trout, bacon, 
mutton, various good cakes, vegetables, tea and coffee, all for 
sixty cents. 

A soldier politely asked us for our passports while at table ; 
being all en regie, we commenced the descent; another ex- 
amination of passports took place, nearer the Swiss frontier, 
at the Douane de France; boxes of goods were knocked 
open, and inspected, but no trunks were subjected to this sur- 
veillance. A few miles further we were in Switzerland, our 
passports were required at the first liitle town, making 
another detention of ten minutes, without our leaving the 
coach, and we rattled down the mountain again. The road 
is lined with red posts ten or twelve feet in height, to mark it 
when covered with deep snow, which it is for seven months 
in the year ; it wants but a few days to July, and the snow 
has only been gone for six weeks; yet vegetation is forward, 
and roses in bloom, cherries nearly ripe, and flowers abound, 
as do fruit trees, especially the apple; where tie road is wide 
enough, these are planted for use and shade, interspersed 
with the mountain ash, showing its clusters of berries. 

Now comes suddenly upon your enraptured sight, at a turn 
of the road, the crowning beauty of the journey. Lake 
Leman, or Geneva, with its broad and grand cultivated valley, 
lies below you — at your very feet, and yet it is twelve miles 
off; so clear is the atmosphere, and so perfect the deception, 
it seems as if you could toss a stone to its centre ; on the op- 
posite side is Mont Blanc, and its surrounding satellites, at a 
distance of sixty miles, and yet you would almost venture to 
stake your purse that it was not five miles from you. I have 
seen most of the celebrated scenery in the United States, but 
never did any impress me, at first view, with feelings such as 



SWITZERLAND. 207 

I now experienced ; T record them while they are recent, lest 
I should have them obliterated by Chamouni. 

The road now assumes a character quite new to me as far 
as actual experience goes ; so level as to allow the horses to 
be driven furiously down, this evenness being obtained by 
frequent zigzags on the side of the mountain, so many in 
number, that they would make on a map some forty or fifty S's, 
and so perfect in construction that you feel as safe as on the 
Jersey sands. At one moment a Genevese town is at your 
feet, and you look down the lake ; at the next, your sight is 
directed to another village, and the waters towards the other 
end, with their picturesque outline, are in full view. After a 
rapid descent to the level ground, you ride at a gallop, twenty 
miles, to Geneva, where you arrive, after fifry- seven hours of 
as diligent travel as 1 have ever undergone. A bath, and a 
good supper at the Hotel des Bergues, the best hotel I ever 
was in, is necessary after this long tour ; that it was not very 
fatiguing, may be inferred from the fact, that though eleven 
at night, I wrote nearly the whole of the foregoing before re- 
tiring to rest. 

Daylight revealed more of the extraordinary beauties by 
which I am surrounded. After calling upon the only person 
to whom I had a letter in Geneva, and fortunately finding 
him in town, we strolled to an eminence overlooking this 
beautiful city and its curious houses ; it is fortified on all sides, 
with gates to every street; these are shut at ten o'clock, 
and moderate pay received for admittance after that hour, 
till twelve, when it is doubled. My friend insisted upon 
my driving with him to his beautiful country-seat; I re- 
turned to a late breakfast at the hotel, looked in again upon 
the busy town, and its shops of watches and dry goods, walked 
its ramparts to enjoy the splendid views of valley and moun- 
tain, and prepared some needful articles for the ascent to 
Chamouni. Lake Leman is evidently the model which the 
English have taken for making their pieces of artificial water ; 
they could not have selected a better, for in picturesque 



208 SWITZERLAND. 

beauty it is perfect. Lake George will afford me the best 
comparison ; but you must increase its width at Caldwell four 
or fivefold, and place valleys, cultivated in every part, and 
with houses interspersed every where among hedge-rows and 
vineyards, for ten to twelve miles on each side; then elevate 
the hills to the height of the Jura and the Alps of Savoy, and 
you will have something like what I am now gazing upon. 

I am writing at the very corner of the hotel, overlooking, 
within a few feet, the outpouring of the lake into the Rhone. 
There is the width of the street only between me and the 
water, which water, remember, is in colour like that at the Falls 
of Niagara below the cascade. Beautiful little sail-boats are 
gliding about on the lake, and a steamboat for Vevay, has just 
put out, from within half a Philadelphia square of uiy pen. 
Swiss peasants, and ladies wearing straw-hats exactly as 
they came from Leghorn, with broad flapping brims, are 
walking below me, and little boys are trying to get a nibble 
at their hooks on the margin of the already rapid Rhone. 
This is picture enough, but the mountains are beyond ; a 
balcony admits me to a full view of all this, and when I re- 
turn to my sitting-room, I see a superb apartment, containing 
among other nice things a grand piano, and plush furniture ! 
Truly one must have an active curiosity to induce them to 
leave such sights, and such comforts, for the fatigues of moun- 
tain ascents — things that I never had a great fancy for. 

There is an appearance of comfort about the country-seats, 
a successful attempt at combining the useful with the orna- 
mental ; the houses look neat and clean after Paris, and the 
same remark will apply to the streets, in which the unseemly 
nuisances, so' prevalent in the French capital, are not com- 
mitted. 

Since the above was penned, I have been to dine with 

Mens. , at his elegant chateau, several miles from Geneva. 

On our route, to catch some of the most striking features of 
the Alps, we stopped at Voltaire's celebrated chateau de 
Ferney, advertised to be sold at public vendue in the middle 



SWITZERLAND. 209 

of August, the last proprietor, M. Bude de Eoissy, having de- 
ceased. The old man-servant of Voltaire welcomed us, and 
told the old story, that his master rode in a gilt coach, and 
four horses, and was a terror to the little boys ; that he wore 
breeches, and ruffles at his wrists, &c. He showed us Vol- 
taire's favourite walk of trimmed elms, planted by himself, 
and called the Berceau ; walked us over the park, as he called 
an old shrubbery with straight alleys, into the garden, and 
then handed us over to a pretty French girl, who exhibited 
the two best rooms of the chateau, left as much as possible as 
when the celebrated owner lived in them. The parlour in 
the centre of the house, has his old, faded, worked arm-chairs 
in it, and is hung with a few pictures ; in one, he is painted 
in the act of being introduced by Apollo to Henry IV. — who 
has a copy of the Henriade in his hand. In another, his de- 
tractors are writhing in agony under his feet. His bed and 
bedstead are poor old trumpery now, and the curtains have 
almost disappeared, piecemeal, by thefts of relic-hunters. On 
the walls are some poor engraved portraits, as the girl says, 
of his friends ; among them is Washington! Franklin, Newton, 
De Lille, Marmontel, Milton, Racine, Corneille, Diderot, Cle- 
ment XIV., Helvetius, and D'Alembert. A portrait in oil of 
Frederick the Great, presented by that monarch, one of Le 
Kain the actor, and one of Catherine II., of Russia, executed 
by herself, in needlework, with one of Madame Chastelet, 
his peasant-boy, &c., &c., hang still on the walls, and are all 
to be sold with the chateau, and large farm, once of nine hun- 
dred acres, but since reduced in size. The old church, built 
by Voltaire, but much dilapidated, still stands on the left of 
the lane, or avenue, leading from the village of Ferney to the 
chateau. His theatre, once opposite, no longer exists. Fer- 
ney is in the French territory, though only five miles from 
Geneva. I should be very sorry to be the purchaser of the 
old spot, for visiters are annoyingly numerous, and not to show 
it would get one a bad name. 

Yours, &c. 
18* 



210 SWITZERLAND. 



LETTER XXXII. 

Geneva, June, 1845. 

Visit to a chateau — The scenery — The group of children — Happy 
family — Population of Geneva— Travellers — Feud — Cabinets of na- 
tural hislory — Library — Calvin's MSS. — Knox — Sismondi — Fellow- 
travellers to Mont Blanc — Sardinian frontier — Douane — Salenches — 
Char-a-banc — The Arve — Baths of St. Gervaise — View of Mont Blanc 
— Chamonni — Travellers of all nations — Anecdote — The hotels — 
The guides — Ascent of the Flegere — The Chalet — Flowers and 
snow — Alpine strawberries — Sunset at Chamouni, 

The first, the strongest wish I have entertained during my 
stay here, has been, that I had brought with me all whom I 
love, to enjoy the delicious scenes I have been gazing upon, 

and drinking in. My friend, Mons. , drove me from Fer- 

ney to his country mansion, whose situation brought me some- 
what better acquainted with the geography of tlie lake below 
us — as if it were at our feet. The view from the ascending 
ground possesses all the poetry of scenery — mountain, valley, 
lake, and high cultivation, with picturesque houses, vineyards, 
and grounds. After we had taken a hurried view, and re- 
freshed ourselves, we entered a superb drawing room, supplied 
not only with every comfort, but with the luxury of many fine 
paintings ; in a few minutes a group of children, with their 
governess, entered, warm from an excursion in the heights 
above the mansion, beaming with health, each crowned with 
a fanciful wreath of yellow laburnum, and full of joy at their 
adventures ; a little King Charles's dog, led by a green cord, 
completed the group, excepting your humble servant, and the 



SWITZERLAND. 211 

admiring' and gratified faces of the happy parents. It was a 
Fcene of home enjoyment which can have no superior; it was 
the happiest which human beings can witness. 

To say that Mons. 's grounds are handsome, would con- 
vey no idea of their beauty : they are perfect avenues of roses, 
grafted six feet high, and all in full bloom ; weeping ash trees 
formed into elegant arbours, with seats; gardens evidently 
produced from the hands of a master of his art, with all the 
accompaniments of a charming chateau, were open for my 
enjoyment. I left this scene of earthly peace, with a sincere 
wish that its present occupants might long enjoy its beauties, 
free from anxiety about health, money, and those worldly 
cares which make up the grand total of our discomforts. 

Geneva has about thirty thousand inhabitants ; the same 
number of travellers visit it annually, distributing large sums 
of money to its manufacturers of watches, jewellery, and 
trinkets. There exists an hereditary feud between the in- 
habitants of the upper and lower town ; the former are aris- 
tocratic and rich, while the latter are poorer and rather 
disposed to demolish the pretensions of their neighbours. 

Saussure's celebrated geological collection is here in an 
interesting establishment, the Musee d'Histoire NaturelJe ; 
Brogniart's fossil plants, and De Candolle's botanical cabinets, 
as well as the collections of M. Necker and other celebrated 
naturalists, may also be inspected. In the library of forty 
thousand volumes, there are four hundred manuscript letters 
of Calvin, and twelve volumes of his manuscript sermons, as 
well as manuscript volumes of Beza. The town was long the 
head-quarters of Protestantism ; Knox, exiled by Mary to 
Geneva, contributed by his presence to the influence exercised 
on the minds of the inhabitants by eminent preachers. Cal- 
vin, too, had his proselytes and followers concentrated at 
Geneva. Sismondi, and other great names, have conferred 
celebrity upon Geneva by their learning and research. 



212 SWITZERLAND. 

Chamouni, July, 1, 1845. 

I found my passport, which had been taken at the gate of 
Geneva, had been viseed, and brought safe to the hotel by the at- 
tentive waiter. Having completed my outfit, including a basket 
containing provisions for which I have found no use, divided my 
baggage so as to retain nothing but a few needful articles, 
and sent the remainder by poste to Vevay, I joined a party of 
two most intelligent English gentlemen with their valet de 
place, Monsieur Dick, and entered again a good Diligence, 
which was to convey us to the foot of Mont Blanc, in this 
beautiful valley. Soon after leaving the village of Chesne, 
w^e crossed a brook and found ourselves at the douane of the 
Sardinian frontier ; our passports were taken from us and for- 
warded half a mile further, to the " Bureau pour la verification 
des passeports," while the contents of the carriage were sub- 
jected to the most rigid scrutiny. Bags of salt, on which his 
Sardinian Majesty levies a heavy duty, were weighed and 
paid for; packages of dry-goods were knocked open, and bills 
for duty made out, while an officer ascended to our several 
seats and examined our baskets, under the cushions — even 
our hats — to see if we were smuggling tobacco or salt ; stores, 
selling these articles only, are found at every little village of 
Sardinia. While the officer was overhauling my basket, he 
unrolled a good bunch of Bologna sausage, and a roll contain- 
ing a few clothes, which seemed to him likely to be a produc- 
tive package; but he was disappointed in finding any dutiable 
article. While this was going on, peasants were driving up 
their rude wagons to the door, beginning immediately to un- 
pack the straw and hay in which their purchases at Geneva 
were stowed, preparing thus for a strict search and a heavy 
duty. The scene was one which a good painter would have 
worked into a saleable picture. At length all was readjusted, 
our passports were returned by a polite Sardinian officer 
ahead, who wished us a bon voyage, and we began to journey 
in the dominions of Charles Albert of Sardinia, whose resi- 



SWITZERLAND. 213 

dence is at Turin ; Genoa is his principal port. We ascended 
by a tolerably good road through a poor country, where the 
people seem to be struggling for existence, and where we 
encountered several scenes of desolation occasioned by fires, 
which have destroyed, almost entirely, several whole towns 
within the past year. 

At Bonneville, where we had an apology for a breakfast, 
we saw a funeral, preceded by effigies of Christ, priests in 
white, military music, and followed by a rabble. The town 
has an utterly foreign aspect from what we have left, and is 
poor and mean. At Salenches, thirty-six niiles from Geneva, 
the road becomes so precipitous as to oblige travellers to leave 
the Diligence, and enter the conveyance of the country, called 
a char-a-banc, well described by likening it to a short sofa set 
endwise on four narrow wheels, and covered with curtains ; 
the projection, formerly called a sword-case, such as we have 
behind gigs, is at the back of the sofa, thus being on. one side, 
while the door is at the other ; but queer as it is, the char-a- 
banc is a comfortable conveyance. A pair of good horses 
carried us over hills and mountain-streams, along the banks 
of the Arve, to the baths of St. Gervaise, a watering-place of 
great pretensions, belonging to a physician in Paris, but not- 
withstanding its healing waters and Alpine scenery, of no 
very inviting character. Snow was now most abundant above 
us, but we found the weather oppressively warm in the little 
valley, which strikingly resembles the scenery of the wildest 
parts of the Wissahiccon, only greatly enlarged in all its cha- 
racteristics. We met several parties at San Martin, where an 
excellent view is obtained in fine weather, coming down from 
Chamouni, who had waited eight days, at the base, to get a 
sight of the summit of Mont Blanc, while we are most fortu- 
nate in having the finest possible sun, without a cloud, and 
are continually straining our necks to look at the " monarch," 
or greatest elevation. 

We arrived at the Union Hotel near ten o'clock, com- 
pletely chilled with the evening air of the mountains, glad to 



214 SWITZERLAND. 

see a good fire in the salle a manger., and to have our beds 
warmed ; this too, after having suffered much with the heat 
in the valley below. The stream of foreign company to Cha- 
mouni has only fairly commenced, but we find people of all 
nations — from Brazil, North America, and all the European 
states, — giving out a jumble of languages which puzzles the 
waiters ; they are hard students, endeavouring to make them- 
selves understood by the inhabitants of the various countries. 
English is spoken pretty well by some of them. I must not 
omit an anecdote on this subject, that amused me very much. 
A good waiter, who had been very attentive to me at Geneva, 
and who had been recently hard at work at his English phrase- 
book, took leave of me with a most emphatic bow, intending 
no doubt to say " I wish yoii a pleasant voyage," or some 
similar expression, but he got the wrong words on his tongue, 
and said, "How do you dol" to his infinite confusion, and, 
for the moment, mine also. 

The number who ascend to Chamouni annually, is declared 
to be from five to seven thousand, though Murray says three 
thousand. The increase is rapid, owing to the facilities of 
arriving, via the Rhine, by steam. New hotels are in pro- 
cess of erection ; the several now in existence show evidences 
of prosperity which a very few years will greatly increase, 
provided the peace of Europe continues to be maintained. 

Next morning at seven I commenced my explorations of 
this most interesting region, a faithful guide having been en- 
gaged over night; these fellows are in number sixty, all 
under a syndic who regulates their engagements, each being 
obliged to take his course in turn. I was the first to start ; 
view me then with a great-coat on, a pannier basket with food 
and wine, mounting a trusty mule in presence of some fifty 
guides, ladies and gentlemen on the balconies, and idlers 
without number. The guide started off at a quick walk, 
with a pole in his hand, to assist in the ascent, or in going 
over ice ; the mule followed as if accustomed to the journey, 
and away we went for the Flegere, a high pinnacle opposite 



SWITZERLAND. 215 

the Mer de Glace, where an admirable panoramic view is ob- 
tained of Mont Blanc and its neighbours. The morning was 
perfect, though a little cold at first ; ascending the rapid 
stream of the Arve for a mile, we turned suddenly to the left* 
mounted a zig-zag path to a great height, and then turning on 
the right, the mule began to move on the side of precipices 
which I can compare to nothing more satisfactory, as it then 
struck me, than walking on stones and rocks atop of a ten or 
twenty-storied house. Fear took possession for a moment, 
but on the assurance of the guide that there was not the 
slightest danger, I kept my seat, and gradually acquired 
courage and confidence. The ascent occupied two fatiguing 
hours, employed in guiding the mule, or in surveying 
the peaks of purely white snow above and around. 1 was 
fully repaid for all this on my arrival at the chalet, where I 
found a man in his cabin surrounded by nick nacks made of 
the chamois horns, stones of this region curiously cut, and a 
good spy-glass to view the mountains and the Mer de Glace 
opposite ; here my guide got his breakfast of bread, cheese, and 
wine, while 1 employed myself with the glass, collected ad- 
ditions to my herbarium, actually pulling a bunch of violets 
with one hand, while the other was embedded in snow ! — ram- 
bled about in the clear sunshine, and enjoyed the magnificent 
view, the height being 3500 feet above the valley. This is 
the grand point from which Mr, Burford took his panoramic 
view of the great mountain and the aiguilles or peaks of 
rocks ascending to the very clouds. 

The descent appeared more difficult than going up, and I 
walked nearly the whole distance. The mule seems to smell 
the road, poking its nose to the ground, and requiring little 
guiding ; I must do her the credit of saying, that she made 
not a single false step. I saw below me a party of ladies 
coming up the zigzag path, preceded by their guide, father 
and brother, who as they marched slowly in ever-changing 
positions, looked C-xtremely picturesque ; when we met, the 
young man stopped to ask if there was any danger, while the 



216 SWITZERLAND. 

females seemed to have perfect command of their animals as 
well as of themselves. They afterwards told me they rode 
the whole distance. 

No sooner had I reached the valley, hot, fatigued and burnt, 
than a pretty little Swiss girl, eight years of age, offered me 
a tray of Alpine strawberries and cream ; you may be sure 
I halted under the first shade-tree, and enjoyed the luxury in 
its perfection. I found dinner on table on my return, and my 
friends congratulating me on having attained a source of 
pleasing reflections for the rest of life. Sunset soon tinged 
the snowy mountains with rose-colour — we walked along the 
Arve to see the cowherds assembling their tinkling charges 
for the night, and to witness the return of some hundreds of 
goats, housed carefully, and' milked for the purposes of the 
dairy. A visit to a living chamois in the village, cheerful 
conversation, the return of the ladies, and their relation of 
their adventures, closed my first day at Chamouni. A gen- 
tleman, who ascended both to the Chalet of the Flegere and 
to the Mer de Glace to-day, has returned so utterly fatigued 
as to be obliged to go immediately to bed. He has been ten 
hours in motion. No one should attempt two courses in one 
day. 

Next morning I rose early again — mounted a second mule, 
and took another guide for Montanvert and the Mer de Glace. 
This day will survive while life sustains my mental faculties. 

Yours, &c. 



SWITZERLAND. 217 



LETTER XXXIII. 

Mer de Glace, Charaouni, July, 1845. 

Mer de Glace — Chalet of Montanvert — The Scene — Pococke and 
Wyndham— History of the Valley — Album at the Chalet — A sample — 
Fatigue of the descent — Height of Mont Blanc — Temperature — Re- 
turn to Geneva — Guerre des enfants — Lausanne — Vevay — Castle of 
Chillon — An evening on Lake Leman — Hard work. 

I HAVE carried a portion of my apparatus for writing to the 
Chalet of Montanvert, that I might have the pleasure of dating" 
a letter from the immediate banks of this sea ofice^ the ascent 
to which has fatigued me even more than that to the Flegere; 
but I dare not complain, for there is a lady on my right, busily 
employed looking over the names and the nonsense inscribed 
in the visiter's book. She seems to be much amused, and not 
as much fatigued as myself. The Chalet is poor enough, just 
equal to one in " the Pines" of New Jersey, but answers the 
purpose for rest. I have been walking on the Mer de Glace 
— or rather it should be called the river of ice, for it bears 
the geographical appearance of a river descending through 
an immense gorge of the mountains, suddenly arrested in its 
course by the wand of winter — but it has also this additional 
feature, which gives it its name of sea : the surface is piled 
over with enormous blocks of ice, standing up like crystal- 
lizations, sometimes twenty feet high, and the flat surface 
between them worn by melting snow into deep crevices, that 
are fearful to look into. After w^alking about upon this un- 
even and most dangerous surface for an hour, I became aware 
of its great extent, and of its general resemblance to the sur- 

19 



218 SWITZERLAND. • 

face of a sea frozen while the waves were highest; it must 
be appro:iched and thus touched before any conception can be 
formed of its extent; you look down upon it from the Flegere, 
and it appears to be of the width of a house — you approach 
and find it to be three-fourths of a mile wide, for here the 
mountains are so high, the atmosphere is so transparent in 
fine weather, — you have no small objects to compare it with, 
— that the deception of size and distance is at first puzzling. 
Mont Blanc, for instance, seems so readily ascendable that 
you would probably say at first glance you are disposed to 
undertake it; the longer, however, you stay in the neigh- 
bourhood, the more do you understand this optical deception, 
and appreciate the objects before you. On this subject. Pro- 
fessor Forbes says, happily, '"'There is nothing more practi- 
cally striking, or more captivating to the imagination, than 
the extreme slowness with which we learn to judge of dis- 
tances, and to recognise localities among the glaciers. Long 
afler icy scenes have become perfectly familiar, we find that 
the eye is still uneducated in these respects, and that pheno- 
mena the most remarkable when pointed out, have utterly 
escaped attention amidst the magnificence of the surrounding 
scenery, the invigoration which the bracing air produces, and 
the astonishing effect of interminable vastne.ss, with which 
icy plains spread out for miles, terminated by a perspective of 
almost shadowless snowy slopes, impress the mind." The 
Mer de Glace continues for a distance of seven miles beyond 
the spot w^here the Chateau Blair, now the Chalet of Mon- 
tanvert, is erected : it has a downward current^ if I may so 
express it, creeping along imperceptibly ; as the lower por- 
tions towards the valley are melted by the sun, others are 
pushed forward by the weight above.* The very huts of the 
peasantry are sometimes invaded by this moving ice ; many 

* For the best account of the glaciers of Switzerland, see Professor 
Forbes's recent work on the subject ; it contains some new theories, 
and much accurate information. 



SWITZERLAND. 219 

persons now living have seen the ripening grain touching the 
glacier, and gathered ripe cherries from the trees with one 
foot standing on the ice. Lord Byron has said : 

" The glacier's cold and restless mass. 
Moves onward day by day." 

Professor Forbes has verified this well-known fact, and 
measured the progress, which he found to be from 15'2 to 
17'4 inches per day, according to the heat of the weather ; 
so that even while walking on a glacier, we are, day by day, 
and hour by hour, imperceptibly carried on by the resistless 
flow of the icy stream, with a solemn slowness which eludes 
our unaided senses. The greatest motion is in the centre of 
the glacier, but amidst all the turmoil, which breaks the 
mountain rocks into atoms, there are no fits of advance, no 
halts, but an orderly continuous progression. 

There is ice enough here to supply all the cities of the 
world for a century ; the manufactory is inexhaustible. On 
returning from the Mer, and before ascending from the 
gully, to the Chalet, you encounter a flat stone covering 
a rude cavern, inscribed with the names of Pococke and 
Wyndham, who slept here in 1745, on their exploring 
expedition; the rock is now christened "The Englishman's." 
The credit of discovery is attributed erroneously to Pococke, 
the valley having been settled in 1088 by some poor Catho- 
lics, and the Montanvert ascended long before Pococke's 
time. The scene from the windows of the Montanvert, is 
admitted by Forbes, and others most familiar with the scenes 
above it as well as below, to be certainly one of the grandest 
of Alpine views. The Aiguille du Dru has scarcely a rival. 

So much has been written so ably on the subject of these 
mountains and glaciers, that I shall not now enter into a dis- 
cussion respecting them ; they deserve all that has been said 
respecting their sublimity, but to be at all appreciated, they 
must be visited — the eye must assist, or the description is im- 
perfect. 



220 SWITZERLAND. 

Professor Forbes has made the following- beautiful allusions 
to the progressive stages of the down-falling glacier : 

" Poets and philosophers have delighted to compare the 
course of human life to that of a river ; perhaps a still apter 
simile might be fouad in the history of a glacier. Heaven- 
descended in its origin, it yet takes its mould and conforma- 
tion from the hidden womb of the mountains which brought 
it forth. At first soft and ductile, it acquires a character and 
firmness of its own, as an inevitable destiny urges it on its 
onward career. Jostled and constrained by the crosses and 
inequalities of its prescribed path, hedged in by impassable 
barriers, which fix limits to its movements, it yields, groan- 
ing, to its fate, and still travels forward, seamed with the 
scars of many a conflict with opposing obstacles. All this 
while, although wasting, it is renewed by an unseen power ; 
it evaporates, but is not consumed. On its surface, it bears 
the spoils which, during the progress of existence, it has 
made its own ; often weighty burdens devoid of beauty or 
value, at times, precious masses, sparkling with gems or 
with ore. Having at length attained its greatest width and 
extension, commanding admiration by its beauty and power, 
waste predominates over supply, the vital springs begin to 
fail ; it stoops into an attitude of decrepitude ; it drops the 
burdens, one by one, which it had borne so proudly aloft, — its 
dissolution is inevitable. But as it is resolved into its ele- 
ments, it takes all at once a new, and livelier, and disembar- 
rassed form ; a noble, full-bodied, arrowy stream, which leaps 
rejoicing over obstacles which before had stayed its progress, 
and hastens through fertile valleys towards a freer existence, 
and a final union in the ocean with the boundless and the 
infinite." 

As I have commenced the bad habit of quoting, let me 
insert a stanza from Wordsworth ; he is speaking of the still- 
ness of these Alpine solitudes : 



SWITZERLAND. 221 

" The utter stillness and the silent grace 
Of yon ethereal summits, white with snow, 
Whose tranquil pomp and spotless purity- 
Report of storms gone bj^ 
To us who stand below." 

At the Mon tan vert a very large folio book is nearly filled 
with the names and observations of travellers of all nations; 
some of my countrymen are given to attempts at wit — some 
draw portraits of their ascending party holding fast to the 
tail of a mule — some refer to the creature comforts — many 
to the clouds which have interfered with their view, and so 
on. I copy two on the spot, in order that you may have an 
idea of the spirit in which the book of Mont Blanc is carried 
on. 

" James Rice and lady reached here in safety after the 
writer's mule taking the liberty of laying down without any 
notice !" 

The Yankees fire away at the Mer de Glace in this 
manner : — 

Five Yankees rode up this darned hill 

To see the sea of ice, 
But as iheir mules kicked up " to kill," 

They didn't find it nice. 

Labor ipse voliipf.as. 

They've eaten the bread, tasted the cheese, 

And sipped the sour wine — 
But all in vain — it does not please. 

They guess they'll be a " gwine." 

Some of the names here of people of neighbouring nations 
are not the most sonorous : a few inserted to-day are of titled 
personages. 

Thus far did I write at the Chalet, not knowing the terrible 
heat and fatigue of the descent ; the steepness is so great, 
together with the loose stones of the path, that it seemed 
madness to attempt continuing to ride ; as walking was the 

19* 



222 SWITZERLAND. 

only alternative, I got to the base as best I could in a glaring 
hot sun, fell rather than sat in my chair at the dinner-table, 
and recounted my adventures to those who had not yet made 
the attempt, but who cannot go away v/ithout it, at least with 
any Chamouni reputation. There was a large arrival of fresh 
company in the evening, some from America. A stroll about 
the valley to see the sun gradually disappearing from the 
summits of snow, sent me, more fatigued than I ever hope 
to be again, to a good bed. I trust I am now done for life 
with mountain ascensions. 

The height of the summit of Mont Blanc is 15,678 feet, 
or nearly three miles above the level of the sea ; it is 14,556 
feet above the Lake of Geneva, and 11,500 above the vale of 
Chamouni. Its actual elevation is 5200 feet less than the 
summit of Chimborazo, and 10,000 feet less than the highest 
peak of the Great Himmalaya chain in Asia. The tempera- 
ture on the summit is from three to five degrees below the 
freezing point in summer. Saussure's thermometer was at 
27° of Fahrenheit on the top of the mountain, while another 
at Geneva was at the same time at 82° F. The barometer 
at the same hour on the 3d of August at noon was 16'181 
inches (English), while at Geneva it stood at 29"020 inches. 
The air of the summit, according to Saussure's hygrometer, 
was six times less humid than the air at Geneva. The least 
exertions caused a laborious and. painful respiration. The 
sound of a pistol was as feeble as that of a Chinese cracker. 

Geneva. 

Having descended with my English friends through the 
same set of beggars we encountered at every turn in going 
up, passing numerous ugly creatures with goitre and cretin, 
we were politely passported out of Sardinia, and arrived early 
in the afternoon at Geneva. 

On again surveying this place, it appears even more soft 
and picturesque in its scenery, from the force of contrast 
with the rough, mountainous country we have left. Though 



SWITZERLAND. 223 

SO small is the Canton, that Voltaire said, " When I shake 
my wig, I powder the whole republic," it must be admitted 
to possess those strong points of beauty which gratify the eye 
and satisfy the mind. Were Switzerland not torn by reli- 
gious dissensions respecting the Jesuits, or by Catholic and 
Protestant feuds, it would seem to me to be possessed of all 
the requisites for human happiness within its own borders. 
Every heart knoweth its own bitterness, and every country 
seems to be enthralled by some eating sore. "You have had 
a war here," I said to an elderly Genevese. "Oui" — was his 
reply — "guerre des enfants." — Children's play. "See here," 
he continued, " the step from the sublime to the ridiculous, 
for there," looking down from the ramparts, " is the powder- 
house of Geneva, and there, close by, is the ice-house for the 
town — you see the latter is much the largest!" The subject 
of the expulsion of the Jesuits shakes the little republic of 
Switzerland to its centre ; whether it is to be powdered all 
over in another sense than Voltaire's, remains to be seen ; at 
present the subject is left to a meeting of the Diet, to be held 
this week at Zurich, where I am likely to see the representa- 
tives of the people collected. 

Geneva is the place for good and cheap watches as well as 
jewellery : you are a good economist if you do not open your 
purse. 



Vevay, July, 1845. 

The neat little steamboat Helvetien brought our party to- 
day to Lausanne, where the sun, pouring down upon tlie houses 
situated on the side of the hill, made the place so hot, that 
we took a hasty glance at the remains of Gibbon's residence, 
and rode over to Vevay. The wall of the "Hotel Gibbon" 
now occupies the site of his summer-house ; there are only 
a few of the acacias remaining of his berceau walk, they 
having been destroyed to make room for a terraced garden. 



224 • SWITZERLAND. 

Very beautiful views of the lake are obtained from the vici- 
nity of Lausanne, where the grape is cultivated extensively : 
as we steamed to it, the vineyards at a distance looked much 
like potato-fields ; the vines are kept very low and carefully 
tended, mostly by women, who employ themselves in picking 
out great basketfuls of the useless young wood. The wine 
here is not much esteeuied ; it is little better or higher in 
price than cider with us. We have always at dinner a pint 
bottle of vin du pays to every plate, without extra charge ; 
both ladies and gentlemen mostly consume their allowance. 

At Vevay you are of course obliged to visit the Castle of 
Chillon, invested with so much interest by Byron's poetry^ 
It is about eight mile- from our hotel, (the latter the " Three 
Crowns," one of the best in Europe,*) and may be reached by 
a pedestrian with ease. It stands upon a rock, with deep 
water all round, over which a bridge of wood has been thrown. 
It is no longer a prison, but a depot for army stores. The old 
prison is large and airy, with a floor of rock ; the light is re- 
flected from the lake through windows above. The depth of 
the lake is stated by Byron to be a thousand feet, while m 
reality it is not three hundred. Read the passage — 

" Lake Leman lies hy Chillon's walls," 

and think of me plucking a flower from the rock — the day 
excessively warm — too warm for verse, and too dusty to 
describe. As this spot, and the scenes of Rousseau's Clarens, 
have been so often described, let me pass them for fear of 
wearying you. An old woman assured me that the house of 
Madame de Warens, Rousseau's queer asscciation with whom 
he relates in his Confessions, no longer exists. The " Hotel 
Byron," a fine house between Chillon and Villeneuve, is 
visible from the lake, and is said to be resorted t© by the best 
CO mpany. 

* It was at this hotel that our townsman, Nathan Dujui, Esfj., breathed 
his last, about a year since. 



SWITZERLAND. 225 

We passed the evening' on the terraces of the hotel at 
Vevay, flush upon the lake ; they are set out with green-house 
plants, orange, and other rare trees, and altogether this is one 
of the most charming spots met with in a tour of Europe. 
Young men are fishing from the steps with good success : the 
gardeners are pumping water from the lake for the plants in 
tubs and pots ; the sun has set in the valley, but shines upon 
the snow on the mountains opposite— ladies and gentlemen 
are seated about under the verandahs, on the very borders of 
the water prospects ; tea is served elegantly in the large 
salle a manger ; a group is engaged in inspecting Bauerkel- 
ler's very interesting raised map of Switzerland, planning and 
studying excursions, calculating how many miles must be 
made on horse or mule-back, and much influenced, I must 
say, by the accounts of the hotels, good or bad, on the routes. 
A great deal of study — real hard study — has to be gone through 
before you can decide what to do^ in this country of beauty, 
variety, and exertion ; for, to travel here requires that you 
should work, and work hard. I am seated in a little nook of 
the garden, overlooking the fishermen — an acquaintance from 
New York is playing with two fine boys, his sons, at school 
here. My English travelling companions are enjoying the 
Italian farniente of the scene — I have, as I wrote, formed 
an engagement with Col. Thayer, of Boston, to penetrate the 
heart of Switzerland ; and to complete the picture, which I 
wish you could see, I have just overheard a young lady say, 
in French, " There is an artiste painting the lake !" She 
means me, and thinks I am drawing pictures ; I wish I was, 
for here the acquirement of drawing from nature would be 
valuable. 

I left my writing materials after inditing the above, took a 
stroll through the environs to the public promenade on a 
height, where women were knitting as the evening shadows 
from the mountains w^ere cast upon the lake in full view — and 
now I wished that in addition to being a painter, 1 was a 



226 SWITZERLAND. 

little more of a poet. It was too common -place to go to bed, 
so I dreamed away a few hours in contemplating the scene 
from the terrace. If I have not already put you to sleep, I 
shall deem myself fortunate. 

As ever, &c. 



LETTER XXXIV. 

Freyburg, July, 1845. 

American traveller — •Hofwyl — Fellenburg's sons — Agricultural schools 
— Freyburg — Feudal watch-towers — The great suspension bridges — 
The organ of Freyburg — Portal of the church — The good and bad — 
Jesuits — Jargon of languages — Anecdote — Eerne — Fountains — Bears 
— Costume — Library. 

We made our way comfortably in a Diligence to Freyburg 
before dinner, our party augmented by the agreeable addition 
of Colonel Thayer, lately of West Point, a most determined 
American traveller, just off of a little excursion through 
Egypt, Russia, Denmark, Italy, and a few other small countries. 
My old companions and myself concluded to stay in the town 
to examine its great suspension bridges, and to hear the cele- 
brated organ, while the Colonel should go to Hofwyl, and 
inspect the school founded by the celebrated Fellenburg. 
The founder has been dead a few months, but the institution 
is continued, so far successfully, by his two sons. There are 
one hundred and fifteen scholars, besides those at an exclu- 
sively agricultural school near at hand, where the art of 
farming, and of carefully preserving and distributing manures, 
is taught with great success. The results of this teaching, I 
am informed, are very satisfactory ; poor boys earn their living 
while at the school, and the sons of the more wealthy, may 
learn to farm if they choose. The gradations of rank and pay 



SWITZEKLAND. 227 

here allowed would scarcely answer in American schools, but 
why we should never have such institutions for teaching the 
theory and practice of agriculture, can only be because no 
suitably qualified individual has undertaken the cause. I 
believe all the manual labour and agricultural schools in 
America have failed after a short trial ; we have yet to see 
whether Fellenburg was the only person accomplished in this 
way, by watching ihe progress of the success of his descen- 
dants. 

Freyburg is a poor specimen of a Swiss town ; the houses 
and stables are under the same ro 'fs; smells are consequently 
rife and most disagreeable. It is curiously situated on a point 
of land formed by the river Saarine, and is full, not only of 
antique houses of the most singular kind, but they are built 
about in such queer situations on the high banks, that you can 
ascribe the inconveniences the inhabitants have so long en- 
dured in getting into the streets from the country, to no com- 
pensating cause but the greater security from rapine and 
violence which they have enjoyed by it, since 1175, when the 
town was founded by Duke Berchthald, who gives name to 
streets, statues, and hotels. There is a long line of embattled 
walls, with feudal watch-towers, running up the ravines and 
surrounding the town : odd and curious structures they are, 
with high, pointed, tile roofs. The gateways of these ancient 
fortifications are still perfect, and the military arrangements 
made in the middle ages are still kept -in repair, though 
latterly of no great use. 

The great suspension bridge is the longest in the world, 
being nine hundred and forty-one feet in length — that over 
the Menai Straits only five hundred and eighty, and fifty feet 
less in elevation : it is the most prominent object from my 
window, towering in the air. During our visit to the bridge 
we witnessed a storm peculiar to the hilly regions we are in : 
it came up suddenly; rain fell, quickly followed by large 
hailstones, so as to alarm me for the prospect of getting back 
to the hotel ; but in ten minutes it was again clear. We 



228 SWITZERLAND. 

walked back in time to hear the celebrated organ of Freyburg 
at the church of St. Nicholas ; it disappointed me as well as 
those of our party who had heard the Haarlem instrument. 
The stop of the vox humana is however extremely beautiful, 
as also the imitation of distant chaunting, and that of a storm 
from Der Freyschutz, the howling- of the wind, thunder that 
almost deafened you, and the falling of hail. The church is 
too small for the instrument. The noise at one time seemed 
as if it would batter down the solid buttresses. 

The Zahringen Hof is the principal hotel of the place, and 
those who wish to hear the music of the organ, inform the 
landlord before a five o'clock dinner; he arranges with the 
organist, who charges eleven francs — there being eleven of 
us, a franc, or twenty cents, was charged in each of our bills. 
The instrument has 7800 pipes, some of them thirty-two feet 
long. The portal of this church has some curious bas-reliefs, 
representing the last judgment. On one side are the good, 
weighed in a scale wholesale, with an imp pulling down one 
beam ; on the other, a devil with a pig's head, (query, did 
they get this from the Egyptians 1) drags after him a crowd 
of evil-doers; others are in a pannier on his back, about to be 
thrown into a boiling cauldron, imps stirring a fire beneath. 
In the corner is hell, being a monster's jaws full of naughty 
people, whom Old Nick is surveying from one corner, as 
things of course that he expects in his net. Under a little 
glass, in a slate-frame, were several requests to the faithful, 
to pray for the souls of recently departed Freyburgers — no 
doubt that they may not be crushed in the monster's teeth. 
This town is the head-quarters of Jesuitism ; they have a huge 
college here like a great caravanserai, and exercise an impor- 
tant influence in the Canton. Of course, Freyburg is deeply 
interested in the question now so rife, of the expulsion of the 
order from Switzerland. 

We had heard of the remarkable division of languages that 
takes place here : the French is spoken at one end of the 
town, and the German at the other, this being on the line 



SWITZERLAND. 229 

where the two tongues begin to be distinct ; we thought we 
detected the fact on the signs, and certainly here first found 
a servant who could not understand our French, heretofore 
the only language we had encountered from Geneva. The 
Swiss have in fact four tongues — the French, German, 
Romanische, and Italian ; a fifth might be added, for we have 
now to help along with a little English, and a sixth is manu- 
facturedj interlarded with the other five and a little Pied- 
montese. 

We had in our party from Geneva to Freyburg, a gentle- 
man, who had singular difficulties in getting alon^ ; while we 
had the best seats, the best beds, and so forth, he was always 
behind with his luggage, and with booking himself forward, 
so that he was poked in the rotund of the diligence with the 
common people, or soldiers, not a word of whose speech he 
understood, and moreover he got wofuUy dusted ; but this was 
not his greatest difficulty ; he lost his bunch of keys at Vevay 
and brought away the door-key of his chamber instead ; at 
Berne he lost a most valuable pair of spectacles, and cannot 
in consequence read a word of his books or bills. He has 
had several other disasters to-day. He has just lamented to 
us that at Geneva he sent eleven shirts of very superior quality 
to be washed; eleven were returned, but when he came to 
wear the first to-day, he discovered they were all of coarse cot- 
ton — probably those of Madame la Blanchisseuse's husband ! 
This mode of travelling is not only troublesome, but expensive. 

One of the roads near this town is bordered by more crosses 
than we have usually seen, though they are quite frequent in 
all the Catholic Cantons ; a short way out of Freyburg I en- 
countered a little recess in a stone wall where was fixed 
under glass, a figure of our Saviour on the cross, with tinsel 
ornaments, and an inscription that can scarcely fail to arrest 
the attention of the passenger ; it was in gilt letters — 

"O! Eternite — Eternite." 

It is evident in Switzerland that the Catholic Cantons are 

20 



230 SWITZERLAND. 

far behind the Protestant in comforts and in those things we 
are fain to call civilization; but they give their time, money 
— a scarce article — and thoughts, to the church. 

Berne, July, 1845. 

Berne is a very curious town; the houses nearly all rest 
upon arcades, under M^hich are the pavements for pedestrians 
— or as I should more properly say, the houses are built over 
the pavements to the curbstone. This makes a covered way 
all through the town. The first story is too low to make this 
walk either airy or very cool, but the effect is good ; like 
most Swiss towns, Berne is amply supplied with fountains, 
and streams of water run down the centre of each street. 
The fountains have quaint devices; Saturn, on one, is de- 
vouring a child, and a few more are stuck in his belt ! The 
Bear (Berne is Suabian for bear) is however the prevailing 
fancy; you meet him sculptured on the town gates; some- 
times he is in armour, with a breast-plate, thigh-pieces and a 
helmet, a sword at his girdle and a banner in his paw ! An 
old Switzer attended by a bear as squire, and many other 
figures of equal absurdity, are set about; then the town coun- 
cils maintain some living bears, and have done so from time 
immemorial. The French carried the family to Paris, where 
the lively population were so pleased with them that it is be- 
lieved their restoration to the Bernese, cost as many tears as 
that of the pictures to Florence. The town clock has a cock 
to crow the hours, and a procession of bears comes out and 
marches around with great gravity. The " boys of Berne" 
get the name of cubs ! and truly the inhabitants are a queer- 
looking set of people ; the women have a costume peculiarly 
their own. The variety of dress in Switzerland is not the 
least attraction to a stranger. I must close my Berne date 
with a feeling recollection of heat utterly overpowering, and 
recommence at Interlachen, said to be one of the handsomest 
places of resort in the country, and the entering wedge to 
some of the finest scenery, which I am about to explore ; but 



SWITZERLAND. 231 

before doing so, I must advise you to go to the Platform, a 
sort of public walk, and take a view of the grand Bernese 
Alps, here seen to the greatest advantage, peering up to the 
skies with their everlasting snows. Grindelwald will, from 
appearances, repay the loss of a day or two to glance at it more 
nearly. 

I visited the town Library of forty-two thousand volumes 
of respectable-looking books, some of which are very curious; 
the History of Switzerland may here be studied. The cele- 
brated Haller was librarian of this institution, and was a 
native of Berne. 



LETTER XXXV. 

Interlachen, July, 1845. 

Thun— Hotel Bellevue— The lake— Church in the hotel— Start for In- 
terlachen — Peasant women — Interlachen — The resort of English — 
Lauterbrunnen and Grindelwald — Avalanches. 

We left Berne for the Lake of Thun and Interlachen, in 
order to see a new class of Swiss scenery among the Bernese 
Highlands and small lakes. The day was excessively warm, 
the roads dusty, and the Diligence exceedingly crowded and 
close ; to add to the discomfort, the conveyance started in the 
warmest part of the day : if one could have cooled oneself by 
thinking of the " frosty Caucasus," the sight of the snowy 
Alps in full view all the way to Thun, would have been emi- 
nently satisfactory ; the distance, however, was only seventeen 
miles. We arrived before evening at the town, an old and 
picturesque place with a feudal castle seven hundred years 
old, surrounded by ancient houses and some five thousand 
inhabitants. We walked after our luggage to the banks of 
the lake, where there is a most superb garden, and in its 
centre, overlooking the water, the Hotel Bellevue, having a 



232 SWITZERLAND. 

watering'-place air, and much frequented by English ladies 
and gentlemen, who find in its beautiful walks and scenery, 
a delicious summer retreat, with every accommodation of 
good beds, table, boats, carriages, and riding horses — in short 
the very beau-ideal of a place of rest — a contrast peculiarly 
striking it must be to the poor Londoners, shut up between 
brick walls ten months of the year. The views here from 
various positions are most truly picturesque, particularly one 
from the Chartreuse, where the Jungfrau, the highest of the 
Bernese chain, with its smaller neighbours, is seen to great 
advantage. The little lake between hills, like a diamond set 
in ebony, with its small iron bateau d vopeur just coming in 
full of tourists, is on the whole I think the very most beautiful 
miniature I have ever seen. The proprietor of the watering- 
place owns two hotels in the garden, and another on the lake, 
as well as the steamboat ; he is thus a monopolist, and his 
charges are complained of, but we found them moderate, and 
himself ready to give us accurate information to govern our 
future peregrinations among mountainous defiles; his name 
is Knechtenho'er, a man well to do in the world, who has 
built in his hotel an English church for the accommodation of 
travellers from Great Britain. This is a common thing in 
Switzerland ; we found one at Chamouni, and at several other 
public resorts ; the fact will serve to convince you that the 
patronage of these places comes from the Protestant English. 
They overrun this part of the continent every season, with 
their guide-books under their arms, standing and wondering, 
grumbling and being cheated, to go home and talk about the 
beauties of Switzerland. 

We left Thun on Sunday morning, accompanied by a Swiss 
guide, in the little steamboat for Interlachen; the boat was 
crowded by country lasses and their beaux, bound for a little 
excursion, and dressed in their curious holiday finery. They 
may safely be called she-men, for by hard and rough work in 
the open air, the Swiss peasant women have attained the 
complexion and the muscular arms of men; their hands are 
larger than you will find in the average of American plough- 



SWITZERLAND. 233 

men ; so little that is feminine have they in their appearance, 
you would not like to have them about you, even as servants. 

Interlachen is on a little strip of land " between the lakes" 
Thun and Brienz, and is also a watering-place of great beauty, 
much frequented by the English, who are accommodated in 
several stately boarding-houses, with windows looking out 
upon rural scenery, fine English-walnut trees,* and upon the 
frozen tops of the Bernese Alps, whose base is about fifteen 
miles distant, but, to all appearance, much nearer. The 
place has a European reputation for beauty and economy. It 
is the starting-point for many excursions, such as through the 
Oberland, where I am going, the Staubach and Giesbach 
falls, Lauterbrunnen, and Grindelwaid. It would be difficult 
to point out a more agreeable-looking spot. As we rode 
through the main avenue of walnut trees, the boarding-houses 
displayed a number of well-dressed ladies, walking about in 
sun-bonnets of a peculiarly graceful form, rather on the gipsy 
order, with pointed tops ; every garden was filled with 
the gayest roses, grafted six feet high, and other flowers of 
rich colours; a large school of half grown young gentlemen, 
on a course with their tutors, were looking about for lodgings, 
each with a staff and a v/allet, while a party of young ladies 
were chasing some tame fawns round a lawn. The sun very 
hot, ice and snow in full view, active life and still life in con- 
trast, but each beautiful, you need not wonder if this Swiss 
Saratoga has left a vivid impression. We retired early to 
gain strength for a fatiguing mountain excursion on the 
morrow. 

The ensuing morning, our Swiss guide on the seat with the 
driver, we made an early start for Lauterbrunnen, in a char- 
a-hanc. By ten o'clock the sun became overpowering ; to 
make the matter worse, we had to walk up much of the 
heaviest part of the ascent. We passed an old tower, said to 
have been the residence of Lord Byron's Manfred, formerly 

* More usually called in Europe She Madeira nut. 
20* 



234 SWITZERLAND. 

the residence also of the Lords of Unspunnen, the g'ovemors 
of the Oberland. We now entered upon a region of peculiar 
and wild beauty ; a narrow valley between hig:h cliffs, with 
a hardy and industrious, but sparse population, who were 
going to church on some festival occasion, gave us a vivid 
picture of the land and the people of interior Switzerland, 
The valley now divides into two branches, the right leading 
to Lauterbrunnen, the left, with the Black Lutschine river 
gurgling down its snow-melted waters, and overtopped by the 
magnificent Wetterhorn mountain. We went first up the 
right-hand valley, overhung by vertical rocks, with cascades 
descending from a great height, their current broken into 
thin spray before they half reached their destination : Lauter- 
brunnen means, " nothing but fountains," derived from the 
streamlets casting themselves headlong from the cliff's into 
the narrow valley, in the manner of the Buttermilk Falls, 
below Albany. The village now comes in sight, formed by a 
succession of straggling Swiss cottages, each with its over- 
hanging roof for protection from the snow, and its snag pile 
of winter's wood stacked under one side ready for use : it 
lies 2450 feet above the sea, and is in one of those confined 
narrow passes where the goitre prevails; it is so hidden under 
precipices, that even now they get a peep of the sun only at 
seven o'clock, and in winter not till twelve at noon. Fruit 
will rarely ripen in this climate. A great number of water" 
falls dangle from the heights as the snow gradually melts, 
and form, together, a respectable mountain-torrent in the 
middle of the gorge. Soon you come upon the great schute 
called the Staubach, so often painted and engraved, and so 
frequently found on enamelled breastpins, made so beautifully 
at Geneva. This is esteemed one of the loftiest falls in 
Europe, measuring between 800 and 900 feet in height ; as 
we neared it a Swiss girl ran before, to open a little shop of 
carved wood articles, of workmanship peculiar to the valley ; 
two more preceded us to sing the Rans de Vache^ and a little 
girl sprung forward to place a plank, of which she is heredi- 



SWITZERLAND. 235 

tary guardian, over the little rivulet across which the visiter 
wishes to pass in order to get the best view. Arrived at the 
spot, you look up into the clouds and see the water pouring 
over, in no great bulk to be sure, but forced from its propriety 
by being shivered into seeming dust long before it reaches 
half-way to the bottom — whence its name — literally, Dust- 
fall. This dust touches all around, like a heavy dew, forming 
frequent little irises, visible all about the very base and on 
the ground at your feet, " like rainbows come down to pay a 
visit.'' 

Byron, in his Manfred, has compared this to the " giant 
steed to be bestrode by Death, as told in the Apocalypse." 
Wordsworth called it " a heaven-born waterfall," but to our 
eyes, which have seen Niagara, it is scarcely grand enough 
to detain us in the heat. 

Getting a little rest at the much-frequented inn, where the 
landlady tried her best to cheat us with wrong change, giving 
a handful of the debased coin of Germany and Switzerland? 
but not enough by half, as the guide soon convinced her, we 
mounted our vehicle and made for the other grand object of 
the day, Grindelwald. The rays of the sun came as if 
through a burning-glass, and, but for the protection of an 
umbrella, would have been insupportable. We were now in 
a long valley, blocked up at its termination by immense 
mountains and precipitous rocks, and among a people of 
primitive habits, who know little of the rest of the world ; 
who have intermarried for centuries, and are just able to pick 
a scanty subsistence in the summer by sending their cattle 
up the mountains, where the herdsmen live for months in 
total solitude. Houses well protected from the cold, a few 
small fruit trees, and a garden formed in the extreme bottom 
of the valley, which often contains no more than twenty feet 
in width fit for cultivation, shelter and support a homely but 
contented population. On arriving at the good inn at the 
top of the valley, v/e were utterly overcome with the weather, 
but on being shown to the best room, were obliged to close 



236 SWITZERLAND. 

the windows instantly, to exclude a biting cold blast descend- 
ing across the little spot on which the house is perched, 
directly from an immense glacier, faced on one side by a high 
bare rock. You are now in the neighbourhood of avalanches, 
which may be seen every few minutes by only making a short 
jom*ney to the Wengern Alp, or Lesser Sheideck, The 
snow performs these antics on the Jungfrau daily, nay hourly ; 
most frequently about noon, when the sun melts the glacier 
to which they are attached. One seen at Chamouni, has 
satisfied me. 

Grindelwald occupied me a long time, and interested me 
greatly. Under the glacier worn by the melting water, is a 
cavern which you enter, and enjoy the extraordinary novelty 
of being in an enormous natural ice-house, and the extraordi- 
nary pleasure of getting out of it. " Come to Switzerland," 
is perhaps as strong a recommendation to you to travel as I 
may now indulge in. 

Ever, &.C. 



LETTER XXXV L 



Lucerne. 



Grindelwald — Dancing on Sunday — Lake of Brienz — Boys on a course 
—Falls of the Giesbach— Accident— Vale of Hasli— Meyringen — 
Baths of Reichenbach — Cross the Lungern pass — Lungern. 

My last left you gazing in imagination on the glaciers of 
Grindelwald, celebrated by all travellers for their extraordi- 
nary positions ; they descend into the hot valley, and people 
live in " Swiss cottages" so near their icy barriers, as to be 
almost within reach of them with a pole, while behind their 



SWITZERLAND. 237 

houses rise perpendicular rocks to an immense height, closing 
ihe exit from the valley at this end. The glaciers which 
cling around these peaks, and fill up the depressions between 
them, extend without interruption from the great Jungfrau to 
the Grimsel, and from Grindelwald to Brieg, in the Valais. 
The extent of this glacier has been calculated at 115 square 
miles, or about one sixth of all the glaciers among the Alps. 

It was Sunday when we w^ere there ; after a dinner of 
mountain trout, born and bred in the water of melted ice, my 
friend and I sauntered out in the hot sun to take views of the 
scenery from different points; we were soon surprised with 
the sound of a violin, and saw numbers of peasants in holiday 
garbs, entering a chalet, where there was a blind fiddler 
playing with great energy while the peasants waltzed them- 
selves into fevers. 

Next morning, still under a burning sun, we took another 
little iron steamboat on lake Brienz, to penetrate further into 
these rocky, mountainous regions ; a spell seemed to be upon 
us, for the more we saw, the more did our curiosity grow. 
Very few passengers made their appearance ; a lady and a 
gentleman, the former a very pretty young bride, in the most 
becoming and elegant white dress, with a pointed straw hat, and 
her cara sposa — bearded all over the face, and very German- 
looking : he was always sucking at his long pipe — with our- 
selves, formed the whole of the first class passengers, except a 
school of English boys, getting their education in Switzerland, 
with their teachers ; they were on a course on foot, and were 
going with us to the falls of the Giesbach a short way up the 
little lake. We found them full of intelligence ; one was born 
in India — another in Canada — their fathers in the army, and 
mothers dead. Never did I meet with more ingenuous, natu- 
ral, and agreeable young gentlemen. 

The boat stops to land visiters at the much-praised falls of 
the Giesbach. Here lives the celebrated family of Alpine 
musicians, three generations of whom turn out to treat so- 
journers with their melodies and the famed Alpine horn ; 



238 SWITZERLAND. 

sounds to be long remembered in after life. On the return 
of the boat we proceeded to the head of the lake to Brienz ; 
our guide quickly procured a new kind of conveyance, between 
a phaeton and a char-a-banc, drawn by a vicious-looking horse ; 
the fair bride and groom entered a larger, drawn by two ani- 
mals, and away we went towards the town of Meyringen, 
from whence we were to cross the mountains, by the Lungern 
pass. We proceeded very well till a considerable descent 
sent our vehiculum upon the rear of the horse ; he started off 
at a furious pace and completely ran away, down a most dan- 
gerous road ; our cowardly Swiss driver first lost his hat ; 
then away went that of the guide; the former gentleman 
rather than be killed by the expected crash, gave up the lines 
to the guide, and threw himself off at the imminent peril of 
life and limb; but for the presence of mind of the guide, we 
should inevitably have been thrown down a steep ravine upon 
the rocks below ; we rather flew than ran, and for ten minutes 
or more I did not consider my life worth a moment's purchase. 
At last we came to the bottom of the hill, the horse was 
soothed with kind words, and fairly stopped, but it was out of 
the question for me to think of running such a risk again, so 
I summoned my most winning smile, and when the bride and 
groom came up, requested liberty to take a seat with them ; 
the lady's pretty mouth actually demurred, but her smoking 
husband said there was plenty of room, and I entered. We 
soon struck up quite a friendly chat, and, were getting on very 
nicely, when there was confusion of some kind that seemed 
to threaten another disaster; looking round I perceived one 
of our front wheels was spinning down the hill greatly in 
advance; the lady screamed, but the phlegmatic husband sat 
as still as could be, seemingly unconcerned ; presently our 
coach smashed into a little fence ; instantly dismounting I 
assisted the lady out ; she received a slight scratch, which at 
first she magnified to a great one ; I brought her a rail and a 
whisp of new hay, and she spread out her white dress to wit- 
ness our proceedings. A beautiful fall of water from the 



SWITZERLAND. 239 

heights above, a fine sun, clear sky, rocks towering" on rocks 
overhead, and my now mortified lady sitting on a rail, with 
the drivers and guide, made as pretty a little scene for a 
painter as could be desired ; we had not much fiirther to go, 
but it was evidently mortifying to madame to have to accept 
my seat in the phaeton-char, after having declined the pleasure 
of my company in her coach ; there was no remedy but walk- 
ing. A little revenge of this kind to a pretty gentlewoman 
has its pleasures ; I walked to the inn, and we became still 
better friends. 

Meyringen, the -chief place of the celebrated vale of Hasli, 
is situated in the region of those mountain-torrents, which 
sometimes descend with such violence, as to bury houses and 
lands under the mud which accompanies these incursions. 
The rock is lias marie, easily disintegrated ; in 1762 the 
village was buried twenty feet deep in rubbish ; the church 
was filled with mud and gravel eighteen feet in height, and 
the fields yet exhibit traces of its effects. 

We stopped opposite the village, at the Baths of Reichen- 
bach, an inn much frequented, and visited the falls, our bride 
being carried by two men in a chaise a porteur, while we 
toiled up on foot. The Reichenbach has a descent of nearly 
two thousand feet, in a succession of leaps amid green trees 
and rocks. 

Time not admitting us to extend our researches further, we 
hired another guide and two horses, and started off" for the 
Lungern pass, our carpet-bags fastened behind the saddles. 

The ascent to the Lungern pass I shall never forget; all 
our endurance was called forth by the heat, by the stubborn- 
ness of the horses, and the character of the road, which is 
a turnpike, three feet in width, made of round stones difficult 
to traverse, the horses slipping every few yards ; and more- 
over the route is very steep. On the extreme top we found 
a chalet toll-house, where an English lady and gentleman, 
passing in the opposite direction, were resting. This is 
the frontier of the canton Berne. A bottle of good wine 



240 SWITZERLAND. 

for ten cents, and some cool water from the melting snow, 
refreshed us sufficiently for the descent onwards to the valley 
of Lucerne. 

After a laborious descent surrounded by all the character- 
istics of Alpine scenery, its peculiar vegetation, waterfalls 
and ravines, night overtook us at Lungern, situated above the 
diminished lake of that name. We dismissed our horses and 
successfully resisted the extortionate demand of the guide, the 
road from hence being practicable for a char-a-banc, and found 
ourselves in the hands of a most unreasonable landlord, who 
having the only inn and the only conveyance in the town, 
placed a high value on his food and services, and was impu- 
dent besides. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER XXXVI L 

Lucerne, July, 1845. 

Lungern lake drained — Alpnach — Boat girls — Mount Pilatus — Slide of 
Alpnach — Lucerne — A beauty — The scene — The expulsion of the 
Jesuits. 

The windows of our chalet kind of wooden hotel overlooked 
what remains of the lake of Lungern — formerly a beautiful 
sheet of water, with the poor town on its very banks. Preferring 
arable land, of which the townspeople had very little to sup- 
port themselves on, to picturesque scenery, it was long an in- 
teresting problem to them, how to drain off the water and 
reclaim the submerged ground. After various consulta- 
tions, an engineer was found willing to promise success, who 
after great difficulty gained 500 acres from the waters, to the 
profit of a joint stock company. 



SWITZERLAND. ^41 

We breakfasted at Alpnach, near lake Lucerne, a village 
bearing a striking resemblance to many in the interior of the 
Swiss and Dutch settlements of Pennsylvania and New York, 
where absence of shade, rude domestic arrangements, and 
dirt mark an ignorant and partially civilized population ; the 
inn was abundantly supplied with wholesome provision, but 
the furniture was what we call Dutch ; nevertheless, we had 
a large piano in the huge breakfast-room. The landlady 
asked if we would have a two or a three-oared boat to row us 
to Lucerne ; as we were in search of novelty, we said three ! 
The boatmen were sent for to carry the scanty luggage, our 
trunks having been forwarded to Basle, by stage from Berne, 
according to the usual piactice of travellers through the 
Oberland. Our surprise may be imagined, when two stout, 
well-dressed lasses, each with an oar in her hand, made their 
appearance, and shouldered our carpet-bags. We were soon 
in the rude boat, and the Swiss girls rowed in a standing po- 
sition by pushing the oars, against a man on the other side ; 
in this way they conveyed us about fourteen miles in a 
broiling sun, stopping but once to take a drink. 1 confess at 
first I felt some hesitation at seeing myself thus waited on by 
the gentler sex; but here they are beasts of burden, as 
farmers, horse-keepers, and boatmen, and their muscles ac- 
quire the solidity and weight requisite for such great labour. 

From the boat we saw the spot where the celebrated slide 
of Alpnach was constructed, to bring down the trees from the 
mountain of Pilatus, or Pilate, on the top of which, in a 
little lake, they say the wicked governor of Judea, banished 
to Gaul by Tiberius, drowned himself, after wandering about 
among the mountains, stricken by an upbraiding conscience, 
and giving the bad reputation of a storm-breeder to his death- 
place. Another spot on the Rhone also claims the poor honour 
of the death-scene of Pilate. 

We arrived without much notice at the town of Lucerne, 
our boatwomen jumping out and tying their canoe to the 
strand ; they then exacted two or three francs extra, beyond a 

21 



242 SWITZERLAND. 

liberal payment, because we had had the awning spread ! This 
we found was according to the tariff fixed by the law of the 
canton ; an awning forming an impediment when the wind is 
ahead, they are allowed to charge when it is fair ; our pockets 
had been already well picked for several days, but there was 
no disputing about fare with such /air captains, however un- 
fair the demand and fair the wind ! The hotel received us 
graciously, but its accommodations, aiming to be elegant, were 
very unlike what we call comfort. The sleeping apartments 
were dirty, while the salon a manger was decked out with 
mirrors, and the dinner table and windows with elegant hy- 
drangeas in porcelain vases. The dinner was in a novel style 
— a mixture of French, German, Swiss, and English tastes, in 
which the frequent changes of plates, and small bits of va- 
rious kinds of cookery, very good in the main, with good wine 
without extra charge, were the principal features, if I except 
my opposite companion's visage, belonging to the homeliest lady 
I ever beheld — an actual living representation of your friend 

's mirth-moving picture of Miss Beetroot ; we could have 

borne her looks, but for a terrible goitre, which brought her 
chin without interruption from the line of beauty, downwards 
to her bust. She was in company with a good-looking gen- 
tleman, remarkably attentive to her wants, and we afterwards 
learned that she was an heiress and a bride ! She, as well as 
the other young ladies present, emptied their bottle each of 
Swiss wine. The heat was intense — no ice was to be had, 
and we soon abandoned the pleasures of the table to have a 
good laugh, and a siesta, before taking in more of the beauties 
of Lucerne. 

Could your first view of a town in Europe be taken from 
my present chamber windows, without your having had any 
previous introduction to such a scene by a gradual approach, 
through scenes differing materially from it, and yet verging 
towards a resemblance, you would wonder what several pro- 
minent objects are, and what people you are among. I am 
looking straight at an old square feudal watch-tower, with a 



SWITZERLA.ND. 243 

tile roof and odd port-holes, and this is connected by a high 
wall running- all around the land side of the town, with si- 
milar erections at short intervals; looking- out of another side 
of the room, I see a tower of great antiquity at the water- 
side, to which has been tacked a modern house ; through the 
corner of this I conceive there is a communication with the 
tower, for a female is sitting at a loop-hole at work, occa- 
sionally surveying, like myself, the people on the short wharf 
below us, who are av/aiting the arrival of the steamboat, 
which goes twice a day round the lake, touching at all the 
ports, including Altorf, the country of William Tell. The 
inhabitants here are nearly all Catholics ; Lucerne is the very 
centre of the difficulties now agitating the country, and I see 
several priests confabulating in one corner, about the events 
of the day, that have been so fully detailed in your news- 
papers. 

The boat has arrived while I narrate, bringing a crowd of 
passengers, principally peasants and their wives, who seem to 
have come to learn the state of things, for they have no bag- 
gage or baskets of marketing. It is evident that the question of 
the expulsion of the Jesuits makes a fearful agitation. One of 
their opponents, an eminent man of this plane, has lately been 
shot in his bed, and preparations for a civil war are said to be in 
progress ; even young women are trained to the practice of 
the rifle. We are told that we are in no danger, but such is 
the state of excitement in the canton, that but few foreign 
travellers have come this way of late. As we are anxious to 
see the land of Tell, and the beauties of the lake of Lucerne, 
we have concluded to make the excursion in the boat this af- 
ternoon ; we hope thus to escape the intense heat we are here 
afflicted with. 

Yours, &c. 



244 SWITZERLAND. 



LETTER XXXVII 1. 



Lucerne. 



Heroes of the land of Tell — The appearance of the inhabitants — The 
republic of Gersau — The lake — Tell's country — The peasants — Eng- 
lish tourist — Pic-nic party — Mount Pilate — The Rhigi — Its ascent — 
Gersau — Brunnen — American travellers from Italy — Tell's chapel — 
Altorf— Tell and his son — return to Lucerne. 

I CONFESS it is hard to identify the people by whom we have 
been surrounded in our excursion on the beautiful lake of 
Lucerne, with the heroes of the land of Tell ; they are to a 
man homely and ill-looking ; quite as much so as the farmers 
we are used to call by the title of Germans, who attend our 
Philadelphia markets. And yet they live in a land famous 
for its heroic deeds, and some are from the little independent 
republic of Gersau, where we touched to land them. 

The lake of Lucerne, or of the four Forest Cantons (Vier- 
Waldstadter-see), so called from the four cantons of Uri, Un- 
terwalden, Schwytz, and Lucerne, which exclusively form its 
shores, is one of the most beautiful to be found in Europe. 
Bordered by high mountains, rocky bluffs, and exquisite sites 
for farms and country-houses — with fine timber, and glimpses 
of perpetual snow, there is a character of sublimity and yet 
peaceful repose, which impresses the beholder with admiration 
and delight. It is moreover classic ground, being emphati- 
cally TelVs country, by which name one of its long arms is 
generally called. We moved from the v/harf at the town of 
Lucerne in a neat iron steamboat, still under a lens-like sun. 



SWITZERLAND. 245 

a motley company. Here was a large group of peasants, 
going as forward-deck passengers, in the rude dresses of the 
working people of the four different cantons; there not being 
room for all in this section of the boat, about as many were 
compelled to take tickets in the more exclusive part, where 
they were pressed in with several parties of English, and 
Prussian, and German, and French tourists; the most con- 
spicuous, and the most observable of these foreigners, were 
two families from England, with children and servants. The 
natives were grouped in consultation on the present state of 
affairs, but our kinsmen, the Britishers, had come for pleasure, 
and pleasure they were determined to have, in their own 
way, for the worth of their money. They had brought ma- 
terials for a pic-nic, consisting of all procurable meats and 
sweets, and by dint of considerable scolding they got up a 
table from the cabin, spread it out on the centre of the deck, 
and amidst the wonder of their more simple neighbours, com- 
menced to do justice to the repast. Cold chickens, eaten with 
silver forks, surprised the Swiss, who were exceedingly 
amused, and apparently interested in the fate of the viands. 
The cloth was regularly removed by the attendants, and a 
course of cheese, and then another of strawberries with cream 
from a jug, underwent speedy demolition : the whole party 
acted as if they were quite at home, the ill-behaved children 
and scolding mamma receiving no little notice from the ob- 
servers. Then came complaints, loud and long, from the 
papas, that the captain had removed the awning; this was 
done because of a head-wind as we rounded a promontory, but 
they declared it was only to save it, which put the already 
hot captain, given to scolding his men immoderately in public, 
in a perfect fury ; at one moment it was doubtful whether the 
elite party would not be set on shore. Thus do some of the 
English behave abroad. 

The lake is in the form of a cross ; when we neared its 
centre, with Mount Pilate on our right, in gloomy solemnity, 
the scene was extremely beautiful. The Rhigi, a mountain 

21* 



246 SWITZERLA N D. 

which most tourists ascend to enjoy the view, girt with ever- 
green forests, was on our left. Here a number went ashore, 
but before they could have more than ascended half way, we 
observed the mountain was enveloped in dense clouds. They 
have had heavy rain all night, and returned at noon to-day, 
quite dispirited, having been crowded in a miserable chalet, 
overcome with wet and cold ; they entirely lost the grand 
views of sunset and sun-rising, from the top. This ascending 
of mountains is at best a sorry business. 

We soon stopped at Gersau, opposite the foot of the Rhigi. 
This is the place which for four centuries formed an inde- 
pendent state, the smallest in the world, its entire territory 
not measuring more than three miles by two, formed against 
the side of a mountain, two torrents washing its central por- 
tion. The ground is rugged and broken, yet have these 
people subdued its wildness, and made it to blossom with fruit- 
trees ; there are about 1400 inhabitants, their largest and most 
conspicuous building being, as usual, the church. Originally 
serfs, the inhabitants bought their freedom in 1?j90 with the 
proceeds of ten years' hard toil, and maintained their inde- 
pendence till the French occupied Switzerland in 1798, since 
which they have been united to the canton of Schwytz.* 

* Murray. I must here, once for all, acknowledge the obligations 
which every traveller owes to Murray's various guide-books for the 
continent. Though not always correct, they contain an amount of 
information and fa(;ts perfectly astonishing, and leave Httleto be desired 
by the voi/ageur, except the pleasure which the sight of the objects 
described, gives. These works are indispensable — better even than the 
most intelligent companion ; the best travelling tutor would be a poor 
substitute ; without " Murray" one would get along like a blind man : 
as to lodgings, his recommendation makes, as his warning against, breaks 
the fortune of any hotel. One landlord, not recommended, declared to 
me at Lucerne, that if Mr. Murrajr said it was right to enter the Cathe- 
dral of Cologne on horseback, he verily believed the English would 
all do so. A •' Mr. Murray," no relation to the bookseller, but suspected 
to be the author, going up the Rhine, told us he was feasted every- 



SWITZERLAND. 247 

Though Gersau possessed a criminal jurisdiction of its own, 
together with a still existing gallows, that emblem of sove- 
reignity, no instance of a capital execution occurred during 
the whole of its existence as a separate state. 

At Brunnen, a little further on, we took on board a number 
of travellers, among them two Americans, who had come by 
the regular route over the St. Gothard pass, from Milan, hav- 
ing visited Rome, Naples, and other parts of Italy, while I 
had been idling in Paris ; they had been no longer from Ame- 
rica than myself, which gave me a twinge of regret that I 
had not been equally industrious. They consoled me, how- 
ever, by stating that they had suffered dreadfully from heat 
and fleas, and would not go again, at this season, for a good 
portion of the Pope's dominions. They had seen Vesuvius in 
powerful action for several days and nights. It was mortify- 
ing to be within eighteen hours' ride of Milan, and not to 
have the needful passport ! If mine had included Italy, I 
believe I should have gone, but I was far from the proper 
source. Let future travellers in Switzerland include Italy 
among the possibles, and prepare accordingly. 

The lake now suddenly changes its direction, and you look 
straight up a long reach that you had not previously conceived 
to exist, between two beetling promontories which open a 
narrow passage, running without much deviation from a direct 
course, to Altorf ; this is the most exquisitely beautiful portion 
of Lake Lucerne. As you ascend past its wooded precipices, 
with here and there a cultivated spot, you pass the Tellen- 
platte, on which is Toll's chapel, a small summer-house-look- 
ing building ; here, according to tradition, Tell sprang ashore 
out of the boat in which Gessler was carrying him a prisoner 
to the dungeons of Kussnacht, when the sudden storm on the 
lake compelled him to remove Toll's fetters, in order to avail 
himself of the hero's skill as a steersman; thus affording the 

where, and had hard work to get the hotel-keepers to make out any 
bill whatever, so anxious are they to get recommended in the next edi- 
tion. 



248 SWITZERLAND. ' 

captive an opportunity of escape. Next you land below 
Altorf, and walk or ride to the spot where Tell shot the apple 
from the head of his boy ; here rude statues are erected of the 
father and son. The sail back is highly picturesque, or would 
be, if like us you are not overtaken by a thunder-storm, and 
obliged to pass most of the time with the grumbling English 
parties in a confined cabin. » 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER XXXIX. 

Lucerne. 

Tlie Lion of Lucerne — Holbein's Dance of DeaJh — A fune?al — The 
church cloisters — Coavent^ — Tell's sword — Lucerne to Zurich — Slow 
travelling — Zng — Heraldry among republicans— Zurich— Iron manu- 
factures — Halel Baur — Feculia/ities — Dignitaries — The Diet — Table 
des Ambassadeurs — ^The dinner — Legislation — Farming — The river 
Limmat — A tea machine. 

The lion of Lucerne is undoubtedly the monument erected 
to the memory of the Swiss guards, who fell in defending the 
Toyal family of France in the great massacre of the French 
Revolution m 1792, for it is no less than a magnificent 
sculptured lion cut from the solid rock, to the sides of which 
it is still attached. The figure designed by Thorwaldsen 
stands in a garden near the town frequented by the populace, 
but the private property of a General Pfeiffer ; its guardian 
keeps a shop of prints and curiosities, and expects a small 
fee, or that you should purchase something ; another of those 
ingenious devices by which the traveller's hand is kept, in all 
parts of Europe, constantly making evolutions between his 
pocket and another person's palm. The curious old bridge 
leading to the old Catholic church has paintings overhead from 
Holbein's Dance of Death ; rather appropriate to the place^ 



SWITZERLAND. 249 

for while examining* one of the pictures, a funeral passed on 
to the burying-ground ; it was that of a child about five years 
old. In advance was the priest, the parents following at a 
rapid pace, while the infant, in a plain uncovered coffin, was 
carried in the rear by a young man ; this was the whole cor- 
tege. The child was dressed in white, and decked out with 
tinsel and gay ribbons, contrasting strongly with the marble 
hue of death. The church has a series of covered cloisters 
attached, running round the three sides of the graveyard 
quadrangle, with vaults throughout, and mural tables opposite 
each, while the poorer classes are interred in the open central 
space. The carvings in stone of saints on the front of the 
church are very antique and rude. An old convent is near 
by. Lucerne presents appearances to the eye differing much 
from any town we have seen, and as it has been and is likely 
to become again the theatre of exciting events, interested us 
greatly.* At the arsenal you may see some suits of rusty 
armour, Tell's sword, and a battle-axe of Ulric Zwingli — so 
they tell you, though some doubts of their authenticity are 
expressed by antiquarians. 



Zurich. 

A good road has lately been constructed from Lucerne to 
Zug and thence to Zurich ; the travel is by Diligence at an 
extremely slow pace, starting late in the morning and ac- 
complishing but forty-two miles in the day. They do not 
seem to value time in the least, and wonder why you can 
possibly desire to go more than that distance in the twenty- 
four hours. The town of Zug, with a population of about 

* It is curious to remark that, even in these days of liberal ideas and 
Catholic emancipation, a citizen of Lucerne is deprived of all political 
privileges if he be a Protestant. 



250 . SWITZERLAND. 

A 
three thousand, on the lake of Zug, is a most primitive-look- 
ing old place, where the people seem to have nothing to do 
but saunter about, smoke, and go to sleep. It too, has a wall, 
and outside are vineyards, orchards, and crops of various kinds. 
We remained there about half an hour, during which I took 
a survey of a Capuchin convent and a nunnery, and also of 
the odd old church in the suburbs, surrounded by tombstones 
with armorial bearings, coats and crests; these republicans, 
like many Americans, are very fond of heraldry. The lake 
possesses nothing remarkable in its general features. 

Before arriving at Zurich, the route descends to the lake 
of the same name by a winding road somewhat resembling 
that from the Jura at Geneva, giving fine views of the beau- 
tiful scenery, full of vineyards^ good country-seats, and exhi- 
biting remarkable fertility. The town has the appearance of 
a capital ; houses of great pretensions, fine hotels, and a truly 
remarkable, elegant, and large station-house for Diligences, 
with every convenience like those on a great railroad. You 
soon learn that Zurich is in importance the second town of 
Switzerland, having extensive manufactories ; one of its 
citizens has a foundry, where he constructs steam-engines 
and even iron steamboats, now generally introduced on the 
Swiss lakes. 

We were set down at the station and walked over the way 
to the new and splendid hotel Baur ; under a porte-cochere, a 
fine-looking servant, dressed in full regimentals, received us 
with extreme politeness, passed us to a maitre d'hotel, who 
conducted us to a line of servants, who passed us to a range 
of chambermaids ; but with all this show of civility, it was 
half an hour before my friend or myself could get our luggage 
carried to our rooms. 

We ordered dinner, and soon found we had got among the 
dignitaries ; the Diet of the Cantons is in session at this 
moment here ; whatever town, in turn, receives the now dis- 
tracted councillors, it is expected that the ambassadors from 
all the countries represented shall be on the spot, and accord- 



SWITZERLAND. 251 

in^ly they are all under the same roof with us ; — very soon 
we were invited to dine — not at the formal table des ambassa- 
deurs, where they were all assembled with their families, and 
where the fashion is for them to be select, but at a little end 
table, where we could see all that passed and have the honour 
of partaking of the same food as these representatives of 
majesty ; no American ambassador is now at this mimic court. 
Every circumstance of the dinner indicated that it was looked 
upon as an event of great moment ; people were peeping in 
at the windows — the waiters were more than usually spry — 
and the ambassadors ate their meat and drank their vin du 
pays much after the fashion of the numerous body of people 
who play that favourite trio with knife, fork, and wine-glass. 
The diet-ing here was more harmonious than what is expected 
at the Rath-haiiSj where the legislation is going on, and where 
the subject of the expulsion of the Jesuits is the topic on 
which they have met, but which they have not yet had courage 
to broach. The ambassadors from Catholic countries are 
looking on with interest. The town has a great preponder- 
ance of Protestant inhabitants, which, as in Ireland, accounts 
for the superior improvements and the improved condition of 
the people over that of the Catholic districts we have so lately 
left. 

This canton is remarkable for its excellent husbandry ; the 
farmers save every particle of liquid manure, carry it out in 
large wooden vessels in the shape of churns, and distribute it 
over the land by swinging it out of wooden ladles, much to the 
distress of the olfactories of travellers. 

We took a delightful stroll round the borders of the lake 
and of the river issuing from it, before breakfast ; every 
citizen seemed busy at some mechanical trade, the Limmat 
giving a fine water-power for the silk and other manufacturers. 

Somewhat in haste to get breakfast next morning that we 
might see the Diet in session, we requested that it might be 
brought immediately'; but a great delay occurring, I sallied 
out to ascertain the cause ; we had been asked if we would 



252 SWITZERLAND. 

have our tea from a machine, and as we were curious to see 
what would come, we said yes. In the adjoining room three 
able-bodied men were perspiring powerfully, and endeavour- 
ing to get the tea machine ready. What think you it was 1 
An English urn with a spirits-of wine lamp beneath ; but 
with all the ingenuity of the three, the spirits would not 
burn. One was lighting lucifer matches, another holding the 
wick, and the third a napkin, all deeply distressed at our 
urgent calls and their utter inability to get up the steam • 
They looked as if they thought me a magician, when I re- 
versed the wick in the spirits and instantly set the flame to 
it with success. 

We took a peep at the assembled wisdom of the cantons, 
the doors with a military guard, but could not see any thing 
going on, and I departed soon in the Diligence, my friend 
Col. Thayer going further round, by the Lake of Como, the 
Baths of Pfeffers, and SchafFhausen. My next will carry you 
to the banks of the Rhine at Basle. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER XL. 



Basle. 



Zuinglius, and ' olher reformers — Gessner — Lavater — Cappell — The 
Swiss confederates — Death of Zuinglius — His monument-^Ride to 
Basle — Dwellings — A new conducteur — Brugg — Cradle of the Haps- 
burg family — Baths of Schintznach — Abbey of Konigsfelden — Zim- 
merman — Banks of the Rhine — American and English travellers — 
Basle — Domestique de place — Cathedral — Tomb of Erasmus — Room 
of the Council of Basle — The Library — Autographs of Luther, 
Melancthon, &c.— Holbein Gallery. 

I SHOULD have remarked that I have just passed the country 
of Zuinglius. The house in which he liVed was pointed out at 
Zurich. It is also the birthplace of Hammerlin, another re- 



SWITZERLAND. 253 

former; of Gessner the poet, and Gessner the naturalist ; of 
Pestalozzi the teacher, and last, not least, of Lavater, whose 
grave, in a small but neat cemetery, I visited and plucked a 
harebell from his tomb under the simple mural tablet which 
marks his resting-place — still kept in neat order by his sister's 
children. The previous day we had passed Cappel, a village 
which has obtained a sad celebrity in Swiss history, as the spot 
where the Swiss confederates, embittered, as now, by religious 
discord, dyed their hands in one another's blood ; and where 
Zuinglius the reformer fell, surrounded by his flock, in 1531. 
" In accordance with the customs of the time and country, he 
attended his people to the field of battle, to afford them spiritual 
aid and consolation, and was struck down in the fight, and found 
by a soldier of Unterwalden, who did not know him, but who 
ascertaining that he refused to call on the Virgin and Saints, 
despatched him as a dog and a heretic. His body, when re- 
cognised by his foes, was burned by the common hangman, 
and even his ashes subjected to the vilest indignities that 
malice could suggest." We saw by the roadside before 
reaching the town, his monument, consisting of a rough mas- 
sive block of granite, bearing Latin and German inscriptions. 
Wildhaus, on the road to Schaff hausen, claims the honour of 
being his birthplace. 

The ride to Basle is through a very pleasant country, 
marked by features of high cultivation, and more of German 
in the population, and very dirty — such as we see in some 
Pennsylvania counties — the taverns strikingly like. Milch- 
cows do the work of oxen; fine barns attached to the dwell- 
ing-houses, stables, hay-mow, granary and pig-sty — all under 
one roof, create a neighbourhood by no means savoury. 

We had now a driver and a conducteur of another rig 
entirely, with a Robin-Hood horn and red livery. As we 
entered the walled town of Brugg, I should have lost my 
head under the low gateway, but for a timely admonition from 
both these civil people. Brugg is an ancient possession of 
the House of Hapsburg, a fragment of whose ancient ruined 

22 



254 SWITZERLAND. 

castle, the cradle of the House of Austria, is visible as you 
enter the town, on a wooded height two miles distant. The 
tall square keep has walls eight feet thick, and beneath is a 
dungeon entered by a trap-door in the floor above. The view 
takes in the site of the Roman Vindanissa, the ruined castle 
of Braunegg the property of the sons of the tyrant Gessler, 
and Birr, Pestalozzi's burial-place, as well as the whole Swiss 
patrimony of the Hapsburg family, from which Rudolph was 
called to wield the sceptre of Charlemagne. Many of the 
Austrian royal family were buried here, their remains having 
been but lately transported beyond the Rhine. Three miles 
from Brugg, are the Baths of Schintznack, the most frequented 
watering-place in Switzerland. 

I took a leisurely survey of the odd old town of Brugg. Half 
a mile outside the walls stands a very large building, till 
very recently the Abbey of Konigsfelden, founded in 1310, by 
the Empress Elizabeth, and Agnes Queen of Hungary, on the 
spot where their husband and father, the Emperor Albert, 
was assassinated. It now looks simply like an extensive old 
house, being converted to the purposes of a mad house, hospi- 
tal, and farm -mansion. Brugg was the birthplace of Zimmer- 
man, the writer on Solitude, and physician to Frederick the 
Great. 

After a much more extended tour in Switzerland than I 
had contemplated on leaving Paris, I now find myself at 
Basle on the banks of the Rhine, most comfortably ensconced 
at the Three Kings, a hotel of the best kind ; my windows 
overlook the beautiful rushing waters of the river, and the 
dinner-room has a balcony overhanging it ; the Three Kings 
are prominent objects as you mount the steps, their statues, 
dressed in colours like those of our Indians, and begilt and bedi- 
zened, over the door. The utmost civility awaits the wearied 
traveller, who is glad to meet these evidences of civilization, to 
pace the long, paved corridors, and feast his eyes with the 
first beauties of the memorable Rhine, I here met several 
conversable persons who had been my companions at other 



SWITZERLAND. 255 

scenes ; refreshed in the bath and the dining-room, and 
lounged away an hour on the ornamental balcony, listening 
to the sound of running waters, and the music of the voices 
of countrymen of my own. Americans now become more 
numerous, and English swarm ; the troubles in the interior of 
Switzerland have deterred many from taking the route I have 
just come over ; they ascend the Rhine, however, with im- 
punity, and many of them are bound to Lake Como, or Schaff- 
hausen, or the Baths of Pfeffers. The servants speak English ; 
they had my luggage, forwarded from Berne, carefully locked 
up, had paid the cost of transporting it, and gave me altogether 
one of those warm hotel-welcomes, so agreeable, but so poor 
a substitute after all, for home. After I was fairly booked 
(hooked), however, their attentions were transferred to newer 
comers, and my bill showed that the great effort had been to 
charge every thing carefully, even to a tumbler of milk — 
(half a franc), and a poor candle, as usual, one franc. This 
time it was a bougie or wax-candle ; I determined if any of 
it was left, to put it in the mouth of my carpet-bag, to see 
how they would like my avoiding this profitable extortion, at 
the next place. 

Swiss, in its political relations, Basle is historically a part 
of Suabia, and is German in its aspect. The population is 
stated to amount to twenty-three thousand ; the Rhine being 
here navigable, though scarcely so above the town, and being 
situated in an angle on the frontiers of France, Germany, 
and Switzerland, Basle holds an important position. The 
railroad which connects it with Strasbourg, brings a great 
amount of travel, while its habitations mark the residence of 
wealthy merchants or manufacturers of ribands, cotton, and 
paper. 

The valet de place is here a domestique de place ; a re- 
spectable and intelligent young man answered to my call, 
detailed to me the objects of interest which he could show 
me in a day's tarry, and I secured his services, with a car- 
riage, for the morrow. 



256 SWITZERLAND. 

The Cathedral (Miinster), was our first as well as last 
place to visit. Its construction differs much from those of 
France ; the material is sandstone of a deep-red colour, 
while the roof is of party-coloured tiles, put on in fig-ures. 
The two lofty spires, and the curious old cloisters for bury- 
ingf-places, together with the German and antique ensemble, 
form a novel and picturesque object to an American. I be- 
lieve I have been lenient to you in avoiding- one of the book- 
making arts of giving architectural descriptions of buildings, 
in terms which none but architects read, and of pictures, in 
language which nobody understands ; commend this course 
to future travellers, and allow me only a brief description of 
this, and a few„ other cathedrals hereafter. It was com- 
menced in 1010, by the Emperor Henry II. The four co- 
lumns inside are formed of groups of detached pillars, with 
grotesque capitals ; the fitting up with pews (for it is now 
occupied as a Protestant place of worship) is rude, but con- 
venient; one contrivance, in case of a full attendance, I have 
not seen at home ; little benches, with a movable foot, are 
buttoned against every pew ; they may be easily let down 
when required, and thus may be avoided the necessity of 
carrying seats down the aisles. The tomb of Erasmus is 
near the altar ; against a pillar is the small red-marble tomb- 
stone, with a brief inscription, marking the spot, with the 
date 1536. A stairway leads into the old chapter-house, in 
which meetings of the committees of the Council of Basle 
were held in 1440. The room remains unaltered since the 
day of this celebrated council. The cloisters are very ex- 
tensive, being a succession of quadrangles and open halls, 
occupied by the dead of the last five centuries, and filled 
with vaults, and tombs, and tablets, recording long-departed 
worth, nobility, or talent ; they run to the verge of the hill 
on the river ; adjoining them is a terrace, or public mall, 
planted with chestnut-trees, and commanding fine views up 
and down the Rhine, and of Little Basle on the other side. 



SWITZERLAND. 257 

The carvings and the whole of the front of the church, have 
an indescribable air of German antiquity. 

The guide w^as able to procure me admittance to the 
Library, though the librarian was absent on a little tour to 
Germany. His intelligent substitute, left to keep the closed 
rooms in order, was very useful in showing us the principal 
curiosities in this collection of fifty thousand volumes — 
among them the Acts of the Council of Basle, in three 
volumes, with chains attached to the binding ; also a portion 
of the library of Erasmus ; his " Praise of Folly" is here, 
with marginal illustrations by the pen of Holbein. I handled 
too the handwriting of Luther, Melancthon, Erasmus, and 
Zuinglius, &c. The library is in an old church, the galle- 
ries of which thus answer a good purpose. This constitutes 
the best library in Switzerland ; it has a few very curious 
MSS. from old monasteries, in fine preservation — among 
which do not fail to remark one of the rarest kind on red 
vellum. In the lower story are some old Roman remains, 
such as altars, tombs, bronzes, pottery, inscriptions, &c. 

Yours, (fee. 



22^ 



258 SWITZERLAND. 



LETTER XL I. 



Basle. 



Holbein gallery — Dance of Death not Holbein's — His histor\' — Anec- 
dote — The University of Basle — Erasmus— Euler — Bernouilli — The 
arsenal — The Rathhaus — M. Vischer's terraced garden — Walls and 
towers of Basle — Terra cotta figures of the Dance of Death — Ameri- 
can cotton ascending the Rhine — Railroad to Strasburg — Pate de 
fuies gras — French frontier — Vexatious scene — Passports — The Eng- 
lish ladies — Low valley of the Rhine — Indian corn and tobacco — 
Poor villages — Walled towns — Manufacturing villages — Strasburg — 
Fortifications — tlotei de France — The cathedral. 

The gallery of paintings and drawings by the younger 
Holbein should be visited by all strangers in Basle ; it is the 
most interesting collection of his works extant ; it includes 
the passion of Christ ; his wife and children ; portraits of 
Erasmus, and others ; a number of sepia drawings, with his 
own portrait ; original sketch for the famous picture of the 
family of Sir Thomas More; with a great number of his pe- 
culiar productions. Also, a few of the fresco fragments of 
the original Dance of Death, but Holbein has been deprived 
of the credit of originating this series, since it is known to 
have existed at the time of the Council of Basle, fifty years 
before his birth. He was obliged to seek patrons in England, 
where many of his best pictures remain. Originally a house- 
painter, it is said he was employed to ornament the house of 
an apothecary, who was anxious to keep the youth at work : 
but Holbein wishing to repair to a neighbouring wine shop, 
painted a pair of legs so exactly like his own, on the under 



SWITZERLAND. ' 259 

side of the scaffolding', that the apothecary, seated below, be- 
lieved him to be constantly present. 

The university, v^^hich once numbered among" its professors, 
Erasmus, Euler, and Bernouilli, was closed. I visited the 
remaining" curiosities of Basle, such as the arsenal, the Rath- 
haus, of Gothic architecture, the terraced garden of M. 
Vischer, of no great pretensions, and the carefully-preserved 
walls, watch-towers, &c., well worthy of inspection. At a 
bookstore where prints and maps abound, the proprietors have 
a very curious manufactory of terra cotta figures, represent- 
ing the Dance of Death — the figures coloured, and labelled, 
in French and German, and correctly copied from the pic- 
tures. If the manufacturer follows my advice, and does the 
labels into English, there can be little doubt of a large sale 
in America and England. 

American cotton in considerable quantity ascends the 
Rhine by steam to Strasburg, and is brought to Basle in 
wagons, or by railroad, at a great expense, to be manufac- 
tured here, and at intermediate places ; the ascent of this 
part of the river, against the stream, has been found tedious 
and difficult, and a railroad has been constructed, on which 
we are to travel to-morrow. 

Strasburg. 
A tolerably good railroad from Basle to this place, along" 
the valley of the Rhine, and past several manufacturing" 
towns, brought me comfortably to Strasburg", so celebrated 
for its cathedral, and its pate de foies gras. I was seated in 
the cars between a sister of charity and a priest, who took 
little or no notice of each other, both employing their time in 
the perusal of religious books. On entering again the French 
frontier, below Basle, the scene of the examination of the 
passengers' luggage was one of confusion, which led to no 
detection of smuggling, and was a source of trouble and 
inconvenience to all, not excepting the regimental offi- 
cers whose duty it was to dive into every body's trunk and 



260 SWITZERLAND. 

bag". As soon as the cars stopped at the station, all the bag- 
gage-cars were unpacked of their contents, and the great 
trunks, &c,, were carried into an office with benches and 
counters, behind which stood the examiners. Among so 
much, and with so many porters, it happened always that 
packages belonging to the same persons were separated, and 
the result was a bawling from perspiring fat ladies, and a 
great anxiety on the part of all. My hat-box was on one 
bench, trunk on a counter, and bag in another place ; the 
first, not locked, was turned inside out and hastily closed 
without being strapped, while I was endeavouring to repack 
the trunk, into which it was impossible in a hurry to return 
all the contents. The carpet-bag was in a similar predica- 
ment; the alternative was to bundle up the extras in a dress- 
ing-gown and hurry back to the cars, almost indifferent whe- 
ther such troublesome companions as " big box, little box, 
bandbox, and bundle," were left behind or not. This system 
was adopted when travellers were few and far between ; the 
idea then might have been well enough carried out, but now 
that the douane is invaded by a modern rush of railroad plea- 
sure travellers by steam, both examiners and passengers are 
seriously annoyed. Passports, too, had to be viseed and re- 
turned — often to the wrong owner. How long this system 
will be continued, remains to be seen. The English ladies 
were particularly discomfited. Most of them had models of 
Swiss cottages nailed up in fragile boxes, which they carried 
by hand, and other Swiss curiosities to ornament their par- 
lours at home ; all these precious packages were unnailed, 
often broken in the process, and rendered difficult to trans- 
port safely by the operation. My writing-case was even 
required to be unlocked. The person, fortunately, is not 
subjected to examination, or I feel assured that a good in- 
voice of Swiss watches and bijouterie, might have been de- 
tected, particularly a pair of those costly little Geneva gold 
singing-birds, which spring fi^om a gold box so magically, 
sing so sweetly, and then jump back as the lid closes over 



SWITZERLAND. 261 

them. An American gentleman of fortune had been tempted 
to purchase two. 

The low grounds bordering the Rhine, give evidence that 
the whole has been long submerged at a former period ; rolled 
river stones and coarse river gravel seem to compose much 
of the soil, on which good wheat, a little Indian corn, and 
less tobacco are cultivated. 

The regulations on this railroad resemble those of Eng- 
land ; men are stationed at numbers of places, such as cross- 
ings or turn-outs, with an arm extended to show the engineer 
that all is right. The rails are not laid with the same firm- 
ness as the English, and the shaking, like that on our own 
routes, is not agreeable. The poor villages we passed gave 
evident signs that business and life was more stationary than 
in our go-ahead country. The manufacturing towns look 
dull and heavy ; often walled, the walls are ruinous and 
neglected ; it was plain, even to a railroad traveller, that 
there was much stagnation of mind in the people. Appear- 
ances improved as we approached Strasburg, the tower and 
spire of the great cathedral looming up to the heavens, and 
seen from a great distance on this level route. 

The city is strongly fortified, with a large garrison; double 
bastions must be passed before entering it, bridges and moats 
also, and altogether there is an appearance of military occu- 
pation of an imposing character, reminding one of the times 
of Napoleon. It is the capital of the ancient province of 
Alsace, the Rhine frontier of France ; it is German in its 
language and aspect ; it was the Agentoratum of the Romans. 

Rather uncomfortably accommodated at the best caravan- 
serai, the Hotel de France, my first visit was, of course, to 
the grand cathedral, of which so much has been said and 
written in all the books of travellers for centuries. It is the 
noblest Gothic edifice in Europe; its spire, the highest in 
the world, rises four hundred and seventy-four feet above the 
pavement, twenty-four feet higher than the great pyramid of 
Egypt, and one hundred and forty feet higher than St. Paul's. 



262 SWITZERLAND. 

Begun by Erwin, of Steinbach, who died in 1318, before it 
was half finished, his daughter Sabina continued to superin- 
tend the work ; but the shigle tower now existing was not 
completed till four hundred and twenty-four years after it 
was commenced. Both towers should be finished to carry 
out the design ; one only has ever been attempted for want 
of funds, so that the building has a lopsided appearance. 
Ascend this great height, if you like, and look over the flat 
country around ; but do not ask me to accompany you. The 
open tracery of the stone fretwork is extremely delicate. 
The cathedral is closely surrounded by houses of no preten- 
sions ; shops, and ugly, dirty people, do not add to the eiFect. 

Yours, &c. 



GERMANY 



LETTER XLII. 



Strasburg. 



Opinions of the cathedral — Description — Mass — The great clock — Mili- 
tary-looking guide — The host — The cost of the building — Moonlight 
view — Monument to Marshal Saxe — Church of St. Thomas — A 
mummy or two found in the church— Oberlin— Goethe — His dwell- 
ing — Invention of printing — The library — Early printed books — 
Anecdote — Roman remains — Journey to Baden-Baden — Douane at 
Kehl — Baden-Baden, a fashionable German watering-place — The 
Hotel de Angleterre — Flowers — Gaming — Mons. Benazet — The ser- 
vants. 

Hope, in his work on Architecture, says of the Cathedral 
of Strasburg — " The gigantic mass, over the solid part oi 
which is thrown a netting of detached arcades and pillars, 
which, notwithstanding their delicacy, from the hardness and 
excellent preservation of the stone, are so true and sharp as 
to look like a veil of the jfinest cast-iron, contains a circular 
window forty-eight feet in diameter, and rises to the height 
of two hundred and thirty feet — that is, higher than the 
towers of York Minster." 

" The building," says Mr. Whewell, " looks as if it were 
placed behind a rich open screen, or in a case of woven stone. 
The effect of the combination is very gorgeous, but with a 
sacrifice of distinctness from the multiplicity and intersec- 
tions of the lines." 

The nave was begun in 1015, and was two hundred and 
sixty years in hand before completion, and this is not the 
oldest portion. The painted glass, great rose windows, the 
enormous height, ornaments in the hardest stone, the great 
space, — all tend to impress the mind with astonishment. As 

23 



266 GERMANY. 

I was soon known for a stranger, a verger in military cos- 
tume and staff, accosted me, and became my guide to tiie 
interior, where mass was performing in two different places, 
and the usual prostrate poor people were kneelin^T, while the 
little candles blazed before altars. The mo^t beautiful clock 
in the world is in one corner, near the high altar ; one of the 
most remarkable features of it is the excellent manner and 
taste with which its various parts are now painted. The 
solar system is in motion, with every contrivance to exhi- 
bit all that a clock can do, including calendar and astrolabe ; 
a cock crows every hour ; youth strikes the quarter hours, 
middle age the half, growing age the third quarter, and 
death sounds the knell after the cock has crowed. This 
horological apparatus, long out of order, has been thoroughly 
repaired lately, at a cost of one hundred and twenty thousand 
francs, und is to many the greatest attraction of the cathedral ; 
crowds wait about to see the hourly operations, in which 
figures, wheels, moon, stars, and planets, produce a great 
effect. My military-looking cicerone was well satisfied with 
a franc for his trouble, and after I left him went to assist the 
service by preceding the host as it was carried round, with an 
air that said it was a trade in which he felt no interest what- 
ever, beyond the salary. The interest of the vast amount of 
money spent on this pile would serve to educate the whole 
poor of Strasburg, sunk in abject ignorance and dependence 
on their priests. 

I visited the cathedral many times, studied its architecture 
with interest, and became almost an habitue of its interior 
by daylight, to catch the spirit of its architecture, while hours 
by moonlight were passed in gazing at its tower and spire as 
the clouds flitted unconsciously past, sometimes in contact, as 
they obscured the beautiful moon. How I wish you could 
have a view of one great cathedral with me ; this would repay 
a traveller for all the fatigues endured in reaching it. 

Pigalle's greatest work, the Monument to Marshal Saxe, 
paid for by Louis XV., adorns the Protestant church of St. 



Q E R M A N Y. 267 

Thomas. Here is an exhibition, shown by a woman, which 
is revolting'. In a room attached to the church is a human 
body preserved by some species of embalming ; said to be that 
of a count of Nassau. His tomb being disturbed by some 
repairs to the building, this body was discovered almost in 
the state in which it was interred. It has been placed in a 
coffin with a glass lid ; the face, somewhat discoloured, pre- 
serves its form perfectly, the nose and all. In another coffin 
is his daughter, similarly covered ; but her flesh is fast parting' 
from the bones, the head and hands particularly, while the 
clothes of each, of antique fashion, are remarkably perfect. 
They were supposed to have been buried more than a century 
when discovered. What motive induces the Protestant con- 
gregation, which worships in this building, to keep such an 
object above ground, I cannot conceive ; the female custode 
profits by it, as all strangers go to the church for the purpose 
of seeing this disagreeable sight. 

Oberlin, and other distinguished men, received their educa- 
tions at Strasburg, and Goethe here took his degree of Doctor 
of Laws in 1772, at the university suppressed at the Revolu- 
tion. The house in which he lived is still in excellent pre- 
servation. The present owner, a physician, has placed an 
inscription over the door to commemorate its occupation by 
the poet. It is a large, double, stately dwelling. 

We are now in the neighbourhood where printing was in- 
vented ; at the public library fine specimens of early date 
are shown, as well as several rare and beautiful manuscripts. 
Cicero de Seneclute^ printed by Faust in 1465, and a Bible 
printed at Strasburg in 1466, should be examined. Guttem- 
burg made his first attempts at printing in Strasburg, but re- 
moved down the Rhine to Mayence (Mentz), where he brought 
it to perfection. Shaeffer was a native of this place. The 
library, a large one, say one hundred and ten thousand vo- 
lumes, is in a poor building, and the books are distributed 
over many rooms. The librarian was particularly attentive 
to gratify my curiosity respecting the red vellum manuscript 



268 G E R M A N 1?^. 

with Byzantine illuminations. When I spoke of the Phila- 
delphia Library, of which Dr. Franklin was one of the 
founders and the first librarian, he said, " Ah, yes ; at Wash- 
ington." In the vestibule are many curious Roman antiqui- 
ties, dug up on the Rhine ; altars, inscriptions, &c., (one of 
them recording, in well-executed letters on stone, the site as 
occupied by the 22d legion,) with other remains, will arrest 
the American eye, not accustomed to handle and look upon 
such curiosities. 



Baden-Baden. 

Crossing the Rhine by a bridge of boats of considerable 
length, you arrive at another douane for the examination of 
passports and luggage at Kehl, preparatory to obtaining 
liberty to enter Germany, the first point being the domains 
of the Grand Duke of Baden, whose beautiful watering-place 
of Baden-Baden I am now luxuriating in. A railroad con- 
nects Kehl with this place, and it is continued through 
Carlsruhe, &c., to Frankfort on the Maine, Wiesbaden, and 
Cologne. An omnibus carried us up from the station to our 
hotel, through a town reminding one not a little of Saratoga 
in its air, though its houses are built so very differently. 
Gardens, shrubs, and trees, beautiful shaded walks, irregular 
ground, and an ensemble of leisure in the walkers, gave indi- 
cations not to be mistaken, that I had arrived at a fashionable 
German watering-place. 

My English travelling companions having agreed to meet 
me at the Hotel d'Angleterre, the most fashionable in the 
town, where I found them, view us mounting a fine marble 
staircase, every step set out with superb flowers in full bloom, 
cultivated in green houses and brought daily in conformity 
with a pretty German and Swiss fashion. A luxurious room, 
overlooking a small piece of water, and not far from that 



GE R M A N Y. 269 

great attraction and temptation, the Conversations Haus, 
gave me agreeable impressions of what I was to enjoy while 
resting at this head quarters of pleasure, and, since the shut- 
ting up of the Paris gaming-houses, of gambling. Gamesters, 
to apply a mild term, are a body of men infesting every old 
community ; against them the morality of even France has 
preached a crusade, and banished them bylaw. Under favour 
of these German princes, they have receded from the sea- 
coast, and taken refuge in Baden-Baden, Wiesbaden, Hom- 
berg, &c., where, for the privilege of fleecing the pleasure- 
hunters and people with a propensity to gaming, they pay an 
enormous bonus to the dukes of Baden or Nassau ; the same 
company of speculators operate at both places, their chef 
being Mons. Benazet, formerly the farmer of the Parisian 
gaming-houses, who has fitted up the public rooms and 
walks in great splendour, and is understood to reap a rich 
harvest from the deluded votaries of the blind goddess, who 
resort here for four months from all the countries of Europe, 
especially from Prussia and Russia, to lose their rouleaux of 
gold. 

Our hotel is kept by a German, who speaks English, and 
he has servants who can converse in all European languages. 
If you speak French or English to one who does not under- 
stand you, he immediately sends the waiter possessing the 
desired tongue, mostly a native of the country desired. 

Yours, &c. 



23* 



2T0 GERMANY. 



LETTER XLIII. 

Baden-Baden. 

PecMjliarities of a residence at Baden-Baden — Hotels — Dinner — Cook- 
ery — Courses — The guests — An American family — A newspaj>er at 
table — Rentier — Princes — Nobleman from Greece — The arrivals in 
the Gazette — Advertisement of a Sunday concert by the Duke's 
band — Pleasure grounds — Conversations Haus — Shops — Bohemian 
women — The scene — Cafe — The gambling rooms — Rouge et noir — 
Female gambler — Roulette — Winners and losers — Sunday the great 
gambling day — The Duke's subjects not allowed to play. 

The customs of a watering-place in America are so different 
from those here, that I may be excused for noticing, in a 
hurried manner, a few of their peculiarities. You select 
any hotel you choose, such as that of " France," " Holland," 
"Russie," "Prussie," "Germany," "de I'Europe," "du 
Rhin," or the " Badenscher Hof,'' where the charge for a 
single bed-room is from two to five florins a day (a florin 
being about forty-two cents) ; you breakfast alone, or with 
your own party in the salon a manger appropriated to this 
meal, and dine at home, or at other hotels, as fancy dictates* 
at a six o'clock table d'hote, having selected your dining 
place before twelve, and given notice to the landlord, who 
provides, accordingly, a sufficient number of seats for his 
expected guests ; regularity and attention is thus insured. 
The dinner is in the German fashion ; the cookery being 
somewhat French, and excellent, is handed round by accom- 
plished waiters in a long succession of courses, somewhat in 
the following order: soup, pudding, salad, fish, chicken, and 



GERMANY. 271 

other poultry ; meat, including* ros-bif, and a parcel of made 
dishes, the composition of which is unknown to me ; a good 
dessert follows. A bottle of wine of the country to every 
plate, without charge ; the whole for fifty cents, at the most 
recherche tables. The gentlemen are moustached, and the 
ladies extremely well dressed. The best-looking party, the 
most genteel in their air and carriage, at our hotel table to- 
day, is an American family, from the state of New York, 
who are the observed of all ; the beautiful and well-behaved 
children could not be excelled for figure and manner. 

Between the meats and dessert, a most polished and quiet 
newsman sells you a brochure, half the size of one of our 
penny papers, in German, giving a list of all the visiters at 
Baden-Baden, where they stay, together with the latest ar- 
rivals ; their titles and professions. My name and those of 
my companions figure, to-day, correctly, but the French and 
German, as well as many English people, write so carelessly 
in the books of the hotels that when their turn comes to be 
printed, the most woful and amusing errors occur. "Ren- 
tier" is the title of those who have no other to sport, and of 
course mine. We find we are surrounded by princes from 
neighbouring German states, from Russia, &c., and we have 
one nobleman from Greece, now in the service of the Emperor 
Nicholas, and, it is whispered, the greatest gambler now in 
the place. Some people come here in pursuit of business, 
and their names and trades are also printed in the Gazette. 
We note several arrivals of milliners from Paris; also a hair- 
dresser, who wishes it to be known that he is in private 
lodgings near the hot springs. An American lady and gen- 
tleman, whom I have been following' up, by tracing them in 
the hotel-books, but who left to-day, figure as Mr. and Lady 

. At the end of the paper is an advertisement that 

the Duke's band, from his palace at Carlsruhe, will give a 
grand gratis concert, to-morrow, Sunday evening, at the grand 
ball-room in the Conversations Haus. 

Very considerable attention has been paid here to planting 



272 GERMANY. 

the pleasure-grounds, about the pump-room, &c., where re^ 
tirement may be enjoyed in alcoves, or publicity obtained by 
those anxious to see the promenaders. The walks are kept 
in fine order. In company with an English clergyman, I 
sallied out to see the humours of the Conversations Haus, 
near the pump-room, to which the scalding hot-water is con- 
veyed in pipes from a considerable distance. The conversa- 
tion rooms are in a very large and ornamental building, 
erected by the Duke, and let to the Paris company for fifteen 
thousand dollars, with an additional charge, sufficient to keep 
up the public grounds. As you approach, both sides of the 
avenue to the building are lined by modern shops, under a 
poor covered arcade ; these are rented to trinket-venders, 
exposing on their little counters every conceivable imitation 
of gold ornaments, seals, watches, glass and crystal stamps, 
ear-rings, purses, and German toys of inferior workmanship, 
but showy. Some of the shop-women are from Bohemia, 
wearing the peculiar pointed men's hats with a broad riband, 
and stomachers. In front of the great building is a stand or 
covered music summer-house, in which the Duke's band is 
performing extremely well. Loungers are seated about the 
front of a cafe, at little tables, in the Paris fashion, eating 
ices, smoking, drinking strong coffee or weak wine, and en- 
gaged in social converse, principally in German or Dutch ; 
their costumes are peculiar, the whole place having a foreign 
air, to us so lately from Paris. In this cafe is a restaurant 
where from three to five hundred dine daily at a very small 
cost. Indeed the whole expenses necessary to incur here, 
and to live well, are not half those of Saratoga, or (;ur sea- 
shores. 

Mount the steps of the Conversations Haus, and enter the 
gambling rooms ; a soldier in full dress guards the entrance, 
but every well-dressed person is admitted. In a large-room 
is the rouge et noir table — see what a crowd of lookers-on 
surround it ! As you have never seen the game, and as every 
bady else does so, you approach and look over the shoulders 



GERMANY. 273 

of the spectators. A large green cloth is nailed on an oblong 
table, having, on each side, compartments divided by yellow 
lines printed on the baize. In the middle sits a grave-looking 
and very gentlemanly personage dressed in black, who is 
dealing several united packs of small German cards; another 
sits opposite to superintend the bank, consisting of huge piles 
of gold, napoleons and silver florins, while two other assistants 
sit at each end to see that the play is correctly performed, and 
to prevent players from picking up other people's winnings ; 
they also provide seats for those who wish to bet, and request 
non-players to give up theirs to more business-like ladies and 
gentlemen. If you sit down it is expected you will play. 
Round the table are seated men and women (ladies rarely 
play) with anxious faces, each with a wooden rake in hand to 
haul in their winnings, and most of them with little papers 
before them, on which they prick with a pin, as a black or 
red card turns up. 

By this they expect to learn the decrees of fortune, for, if 
black is seen by the number of marks to have lately turned 
up very often, they presume that red will soon follow, and 
vice versa. The Russian, who has been gambling here for 
seven weeks, with rouleaux of gold, was hard at work, often 
betting fifty and a hundred dollars at a time, and every jeu 
was over in a minute. Sometimes he won largely, but on an 
average the rakes of the bankers took more than they lost. 
The next most determined bettor was a fat woman, rake in 
hand, who began to-day with a pocket full of gold, which she 
entirely lost, and was now betting silver florins and kron- 
thalers that the card turned up would be either red or black. 
Numerous amateurs, standing behind the seated players, ven- 
tured their coins, but as far as I could ascertain, nine out of 
ten, who played, lost their money. 

In the next room, route it e-tahles were in full operation. 
Four men were similarly seated, with banks of gold and sil- 
ver ; but here the play was performed by dropping a ball into 
a revolving basin, the bottom divided into holes, each number- 



274 G E R M A N 5r. 

ed, and when the ball falls into the number on which a player 
has bet, he wins largely. The bettors placed their money on 
the green cloth, selecting any number as high as thirty-six, 
which numbers were stamped on the baize in yellow ; here, 
too, was a set of players on each side of the croupiers, some 
risking gold and others silver to large amounts. A few wo- 
men were here also, rake in hand ; several hard bettors played 
with spirit, and one, after losing several rouleaux, filled his 
pockets with gold, and prudently walked away, while most 
whom I watched lost uniformly in the long run. " Messieurs, 
faites lejeu" and ^^ Messieurs, lejeu estfait,^^ was repeated 
every minute as the money lost or won was raked in by the 
bankers or the players. I have described this high play, be- 
cause it fortunately has gone out of fashion in America, and 
my readers may not have seen it. 

You will be much surprised, probably, when I tell you that 
on Sunday, at ten a. m., all the rooms in the house are 
opened with similar tables, and that this is the great gambling' 
time, the evening especially, when a grand gratis concert is 
given, and most of the company at the watering-place attend 
in full costume ! What a comment on all this is the fact that 
the Grand Duke positively prohibits all his subjects from play- 
ing at these tables. He permits others to be fleeced, but 
knowing that to be the result, does not allow his own people 
to enter the unholy circle. 

Yours, &c. 



GERMANY. 275 



LETTER XLIV. 

Baden-Baden. 

The Romans at Baden-Baden — Remains — The hot-springs — Called 
"hell" — The water scalding hot — Roman masonry — Fashionable 
drinking hour — Grand Duke's new castle — The Duke now here — 
His appearance — The Princess of Baden — The present family — Visit 
to the prisons under the castle — The secret tribunal — The dungeons 
— The solid stone doors — The rack chamber — The oubliette — Sub- 
terranean passages — Number of annual visiters at Baden. 

This remarkable spot was known to, and occupied as a 
bathing- place by the Romans. There is a room near the 
palace and the source of the hot-springs, where are collected 
several curious Roman remains of stone, votive tablets to 
Neptune, Mercury, and Juno, pottery, &c. These hot- 
springs are thirteen in number, bursting out of the rocks 
at the foot of the castle terrace, called Schneckengarten. 
That part of the town is called " Hell," though the gambling 
rooms should claim a participation in the title. The hottest 
spring is at 54° of Reaumur — the coldest 37°, from which 
they do not vary in winter or summer; snow, in the coldest 
weather, never rests on this part of the town ; the heat melts 
it as soon as it falls. The hottest water is conveyed to the 
hotels for bathing purposes, in pipes, but there is not a demand 
for the whole, and it runs smoking down the gutters, and 
some of the sources are used by the townspeople to scald 
their pigs and poultry. The vault over the hottest spring is 
of masonry of Roman construction. When the woman in 
attendance opens the iron door, you would suppose by the 



276 GERMANY. ' 

heat and the steam which escapes that a good anthracite fire 
was beneath. The water is not unpleasant ; adjoining is a 
temple, where people come in the morning to drink, and 
immediately start for a walk under a covered arcade. Others 
go for this purpose to the pump-room (Trink-halle), to which 
the water is conveyed ; the fashionable hour here is from six 
to seven in the morning, when the band plays. 

Immediately above the springs rises the Neue Schloss (new 
castle), of the Grand Duke, who has lately arrived from 
Carlsruhe for a short residence. Large carriage-loads of 
furniture and luggage are just arriving, under the charge of 
soldiers, who are marching with it to the castle. It is only 
new in contrast with the old ruined one on a higher hill, for 
it was built in 1689. I ascended a pair of rough hewn steps, 
to the grounds, and seeing no impediments, I and the domes- 
tique de place entered a kind of garden, shaded by old trees. 
Immediately before us was the Grand Duke, accompanied by 
two fine-looking sons and their tutor, who were walking up 
and down in the shade. They all took off their hats with the 
politeness of French gentlemen ; indeed the Grand Duke* 
is a most urbane personage; he mixes among his people 

* The princes of Baden had the title of margraves down to 1801 ; in 
1803 the dignity of elector was conferred on them ; and in 1806 they 
were rewarded by Napoleon, for their adherence to the confederacy of 
the Rhine, with the rank of grand duke. The Grand Duke Charles 
Frederick, married in 1806, Stephanie, adopted daughter of Napoleon ; 
dying in 1818, without proper male issue, was succeeded by his uncle, 
Margrave Louis. At his death without children in 1830, he was suc- 
ceeded by his half-brother, son of Charles Frederick by his second wife, 
a Countess of Hochberg, a lady of inferior rank, and whose marriage 
had been called a mesalliance, she belonging to the lower nobility- 
But the King of Prussia and the Emperor of Russia interfered, and 
frustrated the attempt to exclude her children from the succession. 
Her eldest son, now the reigning prince, is Leopold, who married a 
daughter of Gustavus IV., deposed King of Sweden, He has a fine 
family, judging from the sons I saw. The other children were driving 
about the town in a coach and four several times during my stay. 



GERMANY. 277 

without ostentation, generally walking or riding through the 
town daily, but avoiding the play rooms — a fashionable exam- 
ple not followed by the visiters to his neighbourhood. 

I applied to a valet for permission to visit the very re- 
markable dungeons cut out of the solid rock beneath the 
castle. He introduced me to the castellan, who having just 
emerged from their depths, handed me over to his daughter. 
With lamps we prepared for the descent, down stairs cut 
from the rock, under a tower, and through an ancient bath 
constructed by the Romans, the stone bath-tub still remain- 
ing. Altogether, the impressions in this descent to a subter- 
ranean prison cut out of a solid rock beneath a summer water- 
ing-place residence of a modern nobleman and his family^ 
creates sensations novel and interesting. This you will un- 
derstand when I tell you that the place has a history such as 
would grace the pages of Mrs. Radclifie, and that I saw the 
oubliette and the dungeons thus accurately described in 
Murray. 

" The present entrance has been broken through in modern 
times; originally the dungeons were only accessible from 
above, by a perpendicular shaft or chimney running through 
the centre of the building, and still in existence. The visiter, 
in passing under it, can barely discern daylight at the top. 
According to tradition, prisoners, bound fast in an arm-chair 
and blindfolded, were let down by a windlass into these dark 
and mysterious vaults, excavated out of the solid rock on 
which the castle is founded. The dungeons were closed not 
with doors of wood or iron, but with solid slabs of stone,* 
turning upon pivots and ingeniously fitted. Several of them 
still remain ; they are nearly a foot thick, and weigh from 
1200 to 2000 pounds. 

* Several of these I passed through and shut them with considerable 
labour, their weight being so great, though they move evenly on their 
pivots. I confess l was not without a feeling of dread that they would 
fasten, as they once did upon a party, and leave me a prisoner. 

24 



278 GERMANY. 

" In one chamber, loftier than the rest, called the Rack 
Chamber^ the instruments of torture stood ; a row of iron hooks, 
forming- part of the fearful apparatus, still remains in the 
wall. In a passage adjoining, there is a well or pit in the 
floor, now boarded over, originally covered with a trap-door. 
The prisoner upon whom doom had been passed, was led into 
this passage, and desired to kiss an image of the Virgin placed 
in the still existing niche at the opposite end ; but no sooner 
did his feet rest on the trap-door than it gave way beneath 
his weight, and precipitated him to a great depth below, upon 
a machine composed of wheels armed with lancets, by which 
he was torn to pieces. This dreadful punishment was called 
the ' Baiser de la Vierge,' (the salutation of the Virgin,) and 
the fatal pit with its trap-door, an oubliette, because those 
who were precipitated down it were ouhlies, never heard of 
more. The secret of this terrible dungeon remained unknown 
until, as the story goes, an attempt to rescue a little dog 
which had fallen through the planking above the pit, led to 
the discovery, at a depth of many yards,* of fragments of 
ponderous wheels, set rouud with rusty knives, with portions 
of bones, rags, and torn garments, adhering to them. 

" The last and largest of these vaults is called the Hall of 
Judgment. Here the judges sat upon stone benches, remains 
of which may still be traced round the wall. Behind the 
niche where the president sat is the outlet to a subterranean 
passage, by which the members of the court entered. It is 
said to have communicated at one time with the Alte Schloss 
(High Castle), three miles distant on the top of a hill, but is 
now walled up. 

"According to popular belief, these dungeons were the 
seat of a secret tribunal, such as that described so well by 
Scott in Anne of Gierstein, and by Goethe in Gotz of Ber- 
lichingen. There is little doubt that these prisons were the 

* Twenty feet appeared lo me to be the depth as I surveyed it by a 
dim lamp. The dungeons could only have been lighted by lamps. 



GERMAN Y, 27 9 

place of meeting of a mysterious tribunal, over which the 
lord of the castle probably presided. Such prisons were not 
unfrequently the instruments of tyranny, and the scenes of 
dark crimes ; while at the best, from the secrecy of the pro- 
ceedings, such a trial must have been but ' wild justice.' " 

Think of this spot with its real paraphernalia of heavy stone 
doors, bolts ten feet long to close them from another apart- 
ment, its perfect darkness, its oubliette, into which you can 
still look, at the most fashionable of modern German water- 
ing-places, approached by a railroad^ and say if such a tribu- 
nal can ever again exist where a " chemin-de-fer''' or a steam- 
boat penetrates. There was an impression among the Eng- 
lish visiters at Baden-Baden that the dungeons had been 
closed up, and I did not wonder the present possessor should 
issue such an order, as it seemed scarcely creditable to be 
even the successor of people who could practise such dark 
deeds ; a douceur, however, accomplished an entrance, and 
the sight interested me more than all the gay, living popula- 
tion of the place. Twenty thousand people visit the springs 
annually, and but few know or care to see this, to an Ameri- 
can, most interesting feature of Baden-Baden. On visiting 
the High Castle, I shall be able to inform you that appear- 
ances there indicate the certainty that a secret communica- 
tion existed between the two strongholds. The walling up 
of its entrance into the secret tribunal, has been done to pre- 
vent the falling rubbish from filling the rooms; this indicates 
that the passage has a descending course ; it has not been 
explored in modern ages, having long fallen in. Ascend to- 
morrow with me to the old ruin on the hill, called the Alte 
Schloss. 

Yours, &c. 



280 GERMANY. 



LETTER XLV. 



Baden-Baden. 



The company at the pump-room — Conversation — Music — Humours of 
the place — Princes and blacklegs — Excursion to the Alte Schloss — 
Skirls of the Black Forest — The old castle, a feudal pile — Saloon of 
the knights — The Beacon Tower — Storm — The repaired saloon—' 
Restaurant— Contrasts — Communication with the lower castle and 
dungeons — Black mail abolished — Blacklegs — Moonlight scene — 
Family habits of the fourteenth century — Lords and ladies of an- 
cient days — Reflections. 

I ROSE early this morning to see the company in their dis- 
habille at the pump-room and the springs ; the sun shone 
brightly and there was a full attendance. A young lady pre- 
sides, and draws the hot water into tumblers from a silver 
spout resembling our mineral water founts. Too hot to drink, 
the ladies are at liberty to show their airs and graces while 
it cools in their hands ; lively conversation, almost drowned 
by the music of the band — a few people on crutches, and a 
number who will never find any water that will rejuvenate 
their aged limbs, some walking up and down and exchanging 
nods and " wreathed smiles" with their partners at the ball of 
last night — gossip as to who lost and who won during the last 
day of high play, and similar matters discussed in all the 
languages of Europe by modest people with titles, and by pre- 
tenders to fashion and figure with none, sends you back to 
breakfast with lively notions of a German bathing-place. 
Perhaps you have not been accustomed to see so much com- 
pany assembled so far from the sea as this ; the men are not 



GERMANY. 281 

shipping" merchants, such as compose your dashers at Long 
Branch or Saratoga, and you feel a curiosity that can be only 
partially gratified as to their stations and business ; the result 
of all your observations is simply, that you meet here high- 
minded people as well as low, princes and blacklegs, fine 
ladies and grisettes, diplomats elbowed by parvenus, and a 
host who come for very much the same purposes as myself, to 
see life under new phases. 

With my domestique de place^ I made one of a number of 
pedestrians who whiled away a day by an excursion up to 
the old high castle, winding about through a beautiful piece 
of woods, part of the Black Forest, with old hemlocks and 
some modern planting with Balm of Gileads. A good car- 
riage-road also conducts to this celebrated spot ; as we walked, 
the four-horse coach of one of the young prince Galitzins of 
Russia, who was at our hotel in Paris, whisked past us. Some 
walkers were busy in collecting whortleberries ; others were 
botanizing, or resting on the board seats ; fine views of the 
country opened upon us at every turn. Reaching the old 
castle in ruins, we mounted its wall. It was the earliest re- 
sidence of the Dukes of Baden, where they enjoyed such se- 
curity as they could obtain by defending themselves on the top 
of this eminence. In the fifteenth century, when the right of 
private warfare was abolished, this stronghold was abandoned, 
and the dukes came down to their new schloss in the town. 
The galleries round its mouldering battlements have been re- 
paired to make a walk for enjoying the scenery, as well as to 
preserve the old ruin from further decay. It is a magnificent 
labour of ambition, worthy the name of a feudal pile, a vast 
and intricate congeries of halls and corridors, — a true baro- 
nial castle, not the isolated tower of a simple knight, but the 
majestic and embattled palace of a mighty nobleman, who 
might safely say with Plantagenet — 

'* Our aiery buildeth on the cedar's top, 
And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun." 

24* 



282 GERMANY. 

It would seem from this aspiring edifice that the confusion 
of languages did not put an end to Babels. The immense 
solidity of the huge exterior circuit of wall, even more than 
its guardian hemlocks and pines, prevent your forming a 
correct idea of the castle, beyond a vague notion of its extent. 
But when you have passed the deep portal, over which the 
arms of the Zahringen are emblazoned, you find, that sedately 
as it seems to crown the very apex of the hill, its own archi- 
tecture forms a scale of mounds which promise no trifling toil 
to the visiter to surmount. The saloon of the knights has been 
a noble chamber ; the deep recesses of its spacious windows 
command the most ravishing charms of landscape ; but alas, 
it is overgrown with beeches and pines sprung long time since 
from its floor, and you cannot do justice with the eye to its 
proportions. 

Arrived at last, by a series of renovated stone staircases ^ 
at the very apex of the Beacon Tower, the elevation was so 
great that even 

•' The proud tops of the eastern pines" 

had ceased from their competition with the presumption of 
man, either bafiied in the endeavour, or without hope of ulti- 
mately overtopping those high walls which have beheld 
generations of their leafy race spring, decay, and perish. The 
pale Rhine uncoiled its distant and melancholy meanders, 
from one horizon to another, looking as lifeless and still as if 
it were some theatric scene. The distance looked dreary, as 
a rain-storm came up over the far extremity of the glimmering* 
stream. Ere I had done my survey, a heavy shower drove 
me below for shelter. A novel and very curious scene pre- 
sented itself in one of the old rooms. 

Numerous pedestrians had collected in a large saloon which 
the Grand Duke, who takes special interest in the old castle, 
has fitted up and rented to a family who keep a kind of re- 
staurant hotel. Oak panelling, tasteful pictures, chairs and 
tables from antique models, befit the scene. Numerous par- 



GERMANY. 283 

ties from within and without the walls continued to flock in 
as the increasing shower made shelter needful. A motley 
throng' of various nations took possession of the seats till none 
were left ; they immediately began to call in a quiet manner 
for wine of various kinds, with bread, pates, and coffee, each 
party keeping distinct, and perfect order prevailing. As I 
looked out of a gothic bay window upon walls covered with 
ivy, weeds, and even trees springing from them, I espied a 
little court in which there could have been no less than thou- 
sands of empty bottles stacked up, showing how much com- 
pany the modern land-Zorri of the castle entertained. The 
wassail scene how different from olden times — and the 
company, including myself from the far-off new world, not 
discovered when these walls were built, how different ! 

When the rain ceased, I went to look down the great chim- 
ney, sixty feet deep and five wide, which tradition declares, 
and appearances warrant us in believing, was the funnel 
through which the communication with the castle and dun- 
geons in the town was maintained. It is now choked up — 
another kind of civilization, people with other habits and pur- 
suits are pleasuring about it ; Europe is at peace ; marauders 
in doublet, and mail, and plume, are laid; — yonder ascends a 
steamboat from Holland, which has not been stopped at any 
castle below and black-mail levied ; the only blacks about now 
are the blacklegs, levying contributions from the thoughtless 
and unwary at the licensed gaming-tables ; — man is as savage 
as ever — his nature has not changed ; he continues to impose 
in some manner upon his fellow ; now that wars have ceased, 
he addresses his deception to our leisure moments, and robs 
by a more attractive means, where all is fair on the surface, 
but where facts prove that his hyena propensities have found 
the means of picking pockets, if not of sucking blood. 

Moonlight caught me still gazing from these terraces, or 
pushing through old choked-up doorways, to trace relics of the 
family habits of the fourteenth century. Here were chimney- 
places one above the other, showing that there had been 



284 GERMANY. 

a succession of floors and chambers — windows for shooting 
arrows from — bay windows commanding the finest prospects, 
and smaller ones to watch the approach of an enemy. I 
thought of the lords and ladies who had figured here, with 
their passions like ours, but with pursuits and habits of mind, 
— with such different ideas of right and wrong, and I wondered 
if we of the modern school, with our divisions into bitter sects, 
were better than these old self-defending, marauding, free- 
booting, castle-building, mail-clad princes. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER XLVI. 



Baden-Baden. 



Female beauty — Ugliness — Walks and drives — Castle of New Eber- 
stein — Black Forest, why so called — The Favourite — Margravine 
Sybilla — Faded furniture— Sybilla's boudoir — Her sixty portraits — 
Cabinets— Gloomy chapel — Her wire scourge — Hair-shirt and iron 
cross — Her statue companions — Church and Convent of" Lichtenthal 
— Old ruins — Valley of the Mourg — Baden easily reached from Ame- 
rica — Fine weather — Railroad to Carlsruhe — Haardt Forest — Heidel- 
burg — The Neckar — Students, soldiers, and travellers — The Alham- 
bra of the Rhine ; decorations — Mannheim — Mayence — Scenery. 

A DOZEN letters would not convey to you my vivid pleasure 
received at this watering-place. I cannot describe to you 
the beautiful women who resort here, for there were scarcely 
any : either our ideas of what constitutes beauty differ from 
those of Germans, or else their women are generally ill-formed, 
with irregular features and homely. But you must accompany 
me a brief space in one or two excursions to the extraordi- 
narily beautiful scenery around. You can get out of the 
crowd in five minutes by following any of the numerous paths 



GERMANY. 285 

leading from the village, and plunge into the thickets of the 
Black Forest, or take a carriage and drive for an hour and a 
half over a steep hill through Gernsback, an old town, to the 
Castle of New Eberstein, another ancestral fortalice of the 
Grand Ducal family, on a beetling crag, lately rebuilt, and 
inhabited occasionally by their relatives. Here you may view 
old Gothic furniture, ancient armour and coloured glass, and 
scenery beyond, of the most fascinating character ; you get a 
good idea here of the long ranges of the Black Forest, and its 
peculiarities — called black because of the character of the 
black hemlocks and pines. 

As neither you nor I have been much among monkish and 
nunnish people, accompany me to the Favourite^ a half ruinous 
chateau of the old Margraves, built by the Margravine Sybilla, 
whose husband, Louis, fought against the Turks in the ranks 
of Prince Eugene. Its furniture and whole appearance are 
faded, but its remains are in sufficient preservation to show 
the habits and tastes of former days. Sybilla was a belle in 
her youth, as well as a beauty ; and here you may see in her 
boudoir some sixty of her portraits in every variety of cos- 
tume. There is also a cabinet, filled with ancient glass and 
delftware, and her gloomy chapel is shown in the garden, 
where she spent her days and nights in penances. Her 
scourge is actually shown ; it ends in points of wire, like a 
cat-o'-nine-tails, and was used for scourging herself; also her 
hair-shirt, and a cross of iron network, the points turned in- 
ward, which she wore next her skin. Her companions here 
were too wooden figures, as large as life, of the Virgin and 
St. John, with whom she sat down to table, equal portions of 
food being served to all three ; but their share was afterwards 
handed over to the poor. This exhibition is about upon a 
par with that of the dungeons of the Duke, and will probably 
not last much longer. 

I visited in my walks various other places of interest in 
this, to me, novel neighbourhood ; among the rest the old 
church attached to the Convent of Lichtenthal. The convent 



286 GERMANY. 

has been long patronised by the Ducal family. There are 
but a few old nuns in it, chiefly employed in educating 
a number of girls: the seats where they worship, behind 
a screen and curtain, in a niche high up in the wall be- 
tween the church and convent, carried me back in memory 
to olden times. These nuns, happy creatures, have the privi- 
lege of taking the veil for only seven years, and if they choose, 
of returning to the world. The trip to the Valley of the 
Mourg, offers as much of the characteristic scenery of Baden 
as can be procured in a single excursion. I have yet seen no 
watering-place possessing half the beauties or attractions to 
an American explorer as this. Weeks may be employed in 
looking at novelties ; every accommodation is easily procura- 
ble — the gay may find any amount of amusement, and those 
fond of retirement may follow their own pursuits in this old 
place with modern improvements. Persons bound for " a 
summer's jaunt across the water," by sailing to Havre, may 
reach Baden-Baden with comfort in one or two weeks after 
arrival, pass the warm season in great luxury there, and not 
spend much more money than by going to Saratoga. The 
w^ord Baden, means Baths, consequently Baden-Baden, is 
Baths-Baths. 

We were extremely fortunate in the fine weather which 
prevailed during our stay; and altogether I can commend 
this delightful spot as among the most agreeable I have seen. 



Mayence on the Rhine. 

Taking a reluctant leave of my travelling companions, who 
designed to remain longer at Baden than I could spare time 
for, I took the railroad cars for Carlsruhe, the capital of the 
Duchy, and the residence of the Court and the Foreign 
Ministers. It is the beau-ideal or model for a town — being 
regularly built, in the form of a wheel, of which the main 
streets are the spokes, radiating from the common centre of 



GERMANY. 287 

the Palace at the hub ; each street looks upon and terminates 
at one end with a view of the Schloss, which is shown to 
visiters, but as it has little to recommend it beyond the usual 
silk-hangings and furniture and poor pictures, I would not 
recommend future travellers to more than stop here for the 
next train, saunter in the environs to view the Haardt Forest, 
and proceed to Heidelburg. To reach this, you must ascend 
by an omnibus from the station, and may find good accommo- 
dations at a hotel near the celebrated castle. The town is 
on the bank of the Neckar, on a narrow ledge between it and 
the rock on which the castle is perched. In historical interest, 
Heidelburg may claim a pre-eminence over all its neighbours ; 
war has frequently seen it laid in ashes; it has been five 
times bombarded, twice burned, and thrice taken by assault 
and delivered over to pillage, and it figured largely in the 
Thirty Years' War — for an account of which, read Schiller's 
interesting history. It is now full of students, soldiers, and 
travellers ; the latter coming by hundreds to view its castle, 
to which you ascend on foot or in a carriage. It is rather an 
agglomeration of palaces than a castle, and may not impro- 
perly be termed the Alhambra of the Rhine. Built of a rich 
vermilion stone, and adorned with a variety in its architecture, 
its magnificence is the result of the efforts of various builders, 
but of the taste of an entire dynasty. The Electors Palatine 
have vied with each other in their lavish decorations of their 
ancestral palace. To look at its vast facades and towers, and 
to read their history, you would say, that each prince as he 
ascended the electoral throne, eschewed the old habitation 
and added new, as he might the old garments of his predeces- 
sors ; for each alternately built himself a new palace, adjoin- 
ing the old, or pulled down old and built up new on their 
foundations. Thus they proceeded, changing square for 
round, their princely caprices receiving now and then a help- 
ing-hand from the fire and sword of some feudal antagonist, 
and wonderfully promoted by the artillery of the French ; 
until that pile of which we now trace the phantom, glowed in 



288 GERMANY. 

all the intricate and elaborate magnificence of an Arabian or 
Indian palace. Completely restored to its greatest splendour, 
it was set on fire by lightning on the morning of the Feast of 
St. John the Baptist, in 1764, since which it has remained 
roofless but unscathed of its exterior beauty, retaining its 
charm of detail. While you are enabled to form most glow- 
ing conjectures as to its surpassing splendour when entire, 
you are delighted with most finished morceaux of architecture, 
which every where welcome you with mournful beauty, and 
ask what you cannot withhold, the tribute, not of a tear, but 
of admiration for their ruins. 

Facades and turrets, porticoes and gateways, fountains, 
staircases, oriels, gloriettes, statues, arabesques, windows and 
gables, each of them a study -and an exemplar of its style, 
form a golden mine for artist or architect, nor can the mere 
antiquary depart without plentiful subjects of veneration and 
regret. I will not enumerate where enumeration would only 
lead me to too long a detail ; but leave you to study out in 
the works of some more leisurely tourist, the details of this 
sumptuous palace- castle ; only assuring you, that you may 
here see walls twenty-four feet thick. 

The railroad deposits you at Mannheim, near the steam- 
boat that is to convey you comfortably to Mayence, through 
a valley with low banks, possessing few attractions ; the dis- 
tant Vosges and Haardt Mountains bounding the horizon — 
poor-looking farms and vineyards on the banks. The beauties 
of the Rhine commence below Mayence, where a few words 
only will detain 

Yours, &c. 



GERMANY. 289 



LETTER XLVII. 

Mayence on the Rhine. 

Mannheim — History — Grand Duchess Stephanie and court — The Rhine 
steamboats — Restaurant — Historical interest — Roman legions — Libe- 
ration of Germany — Merovingian monarchs — Charlemagne — Various 
dynasties— Bonaparte — ^The Hanse League — Art of printing — The 
Reformation — Boats and merchandise on the Rhine — The slumber of 
ages — Oppenheim — Hotel de I'Europe — Cathedral—:-Monuments — 
Crowning of the German emperors — Tower of Drusus — Pupil of St. 
Peter — Alexander Sevenjs — Modern times — Statue of Guitemberg — 
His house and printing office — Roman aqueduct — Public garden — 
Frankfort on the Maine — Rothschild's bank — His mother's house — 
Statue of Ariadne — Mr. Beckman's gallery — Public cemetery — Clois- 
ters — Thorwaldsen's bas-reliefs. 

Mannheim, where my last letter left me, is a place of little 
interest ; from its position it has shared the fate of the other 
Rhine towns ; burnings and bombardments mark its history. 
It is now the residence of the Grand Duchess Stephanie and 
her court, and of many English families. I took the steam- 
boat here, one of a regular line, to Mayence, about as large 
as those running up the Delaware, v/ith moderately good 
accommodations ; an excellent dinner at a table d'hote, and 
other meals in the restaurant fashion. The river has yet 
acquired no beauty of scenery ; but you are now among the 
scenes to which the writings of Csesar and Tacitus have 
given so much importance. The Germans who dwelt on the 
shores of the Rhine, according to these, were a well-formed 
race, with blue eyes and fair hair, of a bold aspect, trained to 
arms from their earliest youth, with religious feelings, love 

25 



290 GERMANY. 

of freedom, but with the vices of drunkenness, debauchery, 
and love of fighting. The Romans found much difficulty in 
conquering them, never having met with greater resistance 
any where ; they were never thoroughly subdued, in spirit at 
least ; their formidable character is proved by the number of 
troops which the Romans were obliged to keep under arms ; 
of the twenty-five legions which composed the military force 
of Rome in the reign of Augustus, eight were encamped on 
the Rhine alone, making in all an army of nearly one hun- 
dred thousand men. 

The liberation of Germany was effected by the incursions 
of the barbarians of the north under Attila, from which period 
the records of history are full of the events which transpired 
on these shores. The Merovingian monarchs with their feuds, 
assassinations, and debaucheries — Charlemagne, the greatest 
monarch, perhaps, the world ever saw, who extended the 
empire of the Franks over almost all Europe, and whose 
friendship was coveted by the Byzantine emperors, and even 
by the successor of Mahomet, Haroun Alrascbid ; — the Fran- 
conian dynasty — the Salique dynasty, and the Saxon, with 
that of Hapsburg, have each had their reigns during the 
lapse of centuries, and Bonaparte at length took his turn, to 
be supplanted in our own time by new divisions and new 
rulers. From Charlemagne to Bonaparte, the Rhine has 
been the focus of most of the military, political, social, and 
religious revolutions, evolutions, and movements, which have 
affected not alone the destinies of Europe, but probably those 
of the entire world. To prove this, it need only be said that 
the first mercantile confederation, the Hanse League, took 
its rise on the Rhine ; that the art of printing was invented 
in one of its cities ; and that the Reformation had birth, and 
was cradled to maturity, beside its bounding waters. 

As we descended to Mayence, numerous boats with cotton 
and other merchandise were slowly ascending with the assist- 
ance of sails, and sometimes with horses added, towing in the 
manner of canal barges ; the river, as well as its shores. 



GERMANY. 291 

wants the bustle and animation of our own principal streams, 
while the towns seem wrapped in the slumber of ages. This 
is the case at all, and especially at Oppenheim, where we 
stopped to visit the old Gothic church of St. Catherine, a 
century older than Westminster Abbey ; its architecture is 
equally advanced and florid; the painted glass and the monu- 
ments, once the boast of the Rhine, are now defaced ; the 
roof of the nave gone, and till lately weeds filled its interior. 

The Hotel de I'Europe, at Mayence, where I am esta- 
blished, faces the river, and is a place of great pretensions 
and many comforts. The town lies nearly opposite the junc- 
tion of the Maine with the Rhine ; it is filled with strangers 
and soldiers, while new and important fortifications are in 
course of erection under my very windows on the quay. A 
fine old CEfcthedral, begun in the 10th century, has suffered 
various vicissitudes, having been set on fire by the Prussian 
bombardment in 1793, and from injuries during its occupation 
by the French armies as barracks and powder-house. It is 
well filled with the monuments of the episcopal electors of 
Mayence ; some archbishops, who enjoyed celebrity in their 
day from their exercised right of placing the crown on the 
heads of the German emperors, are depicted in that act. One, 
who had crowned three, appears in stone as large as all the 
crowned heads together. 

Another of the sights of Mayence, to which I toiled in 
company with a valet who had obtained a ticket from the 
authorities for the purpose, is the Tower of Drusus, situated 
within the limits of the citadel ; it is fast crumbling to decay, 
its walls filled with weeds ; at the top is a trap door, from 
which you emerge upon a weedy roof, commanding several 
views of a dull country ; it was erected by Drusus Germani- 
cus, who succeeded to the command of the Roman legions on 
the Rhine. The twenty-second legion, which had been en- 
gaged under Titus in the conquest of Judea and the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem, was stationed here A. D. 70, and Crescen- 
tius, one of the first preachers of the Christian faith on the 



292 GERMANY. 

Rhine, it is stated was a centurion in it. This pious man is 
uniformly described in local history as a pupil of St. Peter, 
and he has always been known as the first bishop of May- 
ence. He is said to have suffered martyrdom under the 
reign of Trajan, A. D. 103. Alexander Severus was mur- 
dered here in 233 ; — so you see I am again among historical 
scenes. 

A more modern matter here demands attention. It is the 
recently erected statue, and a fine one it is, of Guttemberg, 
the inventor of printing. The figure is of bronze, and colos- 
sal ; on one side of the base is represented a printing-press ; 
on the other a printer's case of types. Mayence was the 
birth-place of Guttemberg, about 1395, and the house was 
shown to me in which he first saw the light ; as well as his 
first printing-office from 1443 to 1450. These antiquities 
must be deemed among the most interesting on the Rhine. 
The remains of a Roman aqueduct nearly 3,000 feet long, 
with sixty-two pillars remaining, may be visited a short dis- 
tance from the town ; as well as a really tasteful, modern, 
and well-ordered public garden, with which I was much 
pleased ; it is kept in order at the expense of the town au- 
thorities. 

Frankfort on the Maine. 
Crossing the Rhine on a bridge of boats 1600 feet in length, 
to Cassel in Hesse Darmstadt, I entered a good railroad car, 
and was whirled off to this free town, famous for its fairs, 
and for being one of the most lively, wealthy, and handsome 
cities in Germany. In the omnibus at the terminus, I found 
myself in the dark, in company with numerous English men 
and women, who seemed to consider getting into a good 
hotel a most important affair ; they had reason, for on going 
to the best, the Hotel de Russie, der Weisse Schwan, and 
half a dozen others, we were coolly informed they were all 
full ; I was glad at length to get a poor bed in a dirty room, 
with rats gnawing the floors, at the inn of a Jew. 



GERMANY. 293 

Many of the houses here are large and handsome ; nearly- 
all of any respectability have looking-glasses so placed out- 
side the windows as to reflect what passes in the street to 
the eyes of the unseen inmates. Baron Rothschild's banking- 
house is near my hotel ; on stepping in, I found one hundred 
and fifty clerks busily employed ; wagons with bullion boxes 
were unloading in front, into the hands of liveried servants. 
He maintains a business intercourse with all the commercial 
world ; has a splendid palace near the town, but has been un- 
able to induce his mother, ninety years of age, to remove her 
domicile from the old Jews' Street, where I stopped opposite 
its antique front door to wonder at her taste. Her house is 
comfortable enough, but is surrounded by as poor a population 
of old clothes' venders and their numerous progeny, as you 
can imagine. I stepped into the ancient synagogue, where 
the rudest and meanest accommodations I ever imagined for 
a place of worship, are to be seen. 

I next visited Dannecker's celebrated statue of Ariadne, 
in the gallery of Mr. Bethman, a rich citizen, where are 
other fine statues, and some good paintings. This is in a 
room by itself, a luxurious light cast over it by red-coloured 
glass. It is fixed on a pivot, and the feed attendant comes in 
now and then, v\ hile visiters are seated round, to give it a 
turn to exhibit its naked beauties in a new position. This 
female figure possesses a countenance the most noble that I 
can imagine, being altogether worthy of its fame. Frankfort 
also possesses other great treasures of art in its picture- 
gallery, where were some just arrived from the late sale of 
Cardinal Fesch's at Rome. There are many paintings by 
the early masters of the Low Countries and Germany, and a 
few of the Italian school, of merit. 

A public cemetery on a large scale, now nearly filled, 
where a practice common in Switzerland and Germany, of 
interring in cloisters, or covered arcades, is carried to a great 
extent, is well planted, and highly attractive. Among the 
monuments at the upper end, in one of these cloisters, is that 

25* 



294 GERMANY. | 

of the Bethman family, with beautiful bas-reliefs by Thor- 
waldsen ; it commemorates the death of a daughter in the 
most touching manner. It is under lock and key. The ar- 
rangements to prevent any danger from premature interment 
adopted here are very complete. Each corpse is placed in a 
dead-house, with a bell-rope in the hand, for several days 
before interment. 

Altogether, this specimen of a German town has gratified 
me greatly. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER XLVIII. 

Wiesbaden. 

Ride to Wiesbaden — Vineyards — The River Maine — Railroads — Beau- 
tiful watering-place — Hotels and lodging-houses — Prices — Baths — 
The Kur-Saal — Cheap dinners — Residence of the Ducal family — 
The company — Curious shops — The gambling-rooms — German wo- 
men — Smoking — American trees — Carp pond — Band of music — Balls 
— Soldiers — Carved stags' horns — Shop of Bohemian glass — The 
Boiling Springs — Roman remains — Votive Roman tablets — The 
Heidenmauer — Forts of the Catti — Worship of Mythras — The Duke's 
hunting-lodge — Reflections. 

The ride from Frankfort to this great watering-place is 
through a country well tilled, in which fruit-trees and great 
fields of poppies, the latter cultivated to make oil from their 
seeds, with the vineyards of Hochheim, figure largely ; it 
presents features of habitations and close proximity of houses 
gratifying to the eye as evidences of comfort and independ- 
ence. The river Maine is navigable for steamboats, which 
trade with the towns of the Rhine, and the railroad to Cassel 



GERMANY. 295 

has brought it into still closer connexion with the latter. A 
branch railroad connects Cassel with Wiesbaden also, from 
which it is distant only a few miles. But meeting with 
agreeable company, I came over to this place in a carriage. 
No descriptions that I have read convey an adequate idea of 
this superb watering-place, whose attractions are surpassed 
by few, if any, in the habitable world. 

Wiesbaden differs from its congener up the Rhine, in hav- 
ing more of a city air ; the town is larger and much more 
regularly built; most of the well-constructed houses are 
hotels or lodging-houses, where the expense, compared with 
those of Saratoga, or the Virginia Springs, considering the 
elegance of the accommodations, is less than in America. 
At the lodging-houses, you may get a good bed-room for 
from two to four dollars a week ; with breakfast, a dollar and 
a half more. The hot water is conveyed to many of these 
houses, so that you step from your bed-room to a luxurious 
bath, the charge for which is twenty cents. The great 
dining-place is at the Kur-Saal, answering to the Conversa- 
tions Haus at Baden-Baden, but larger; here three or four 
hundred people dine daily with fifteen courses, consisting of 
all the delicacies of the season, ice included, for thirty-one 
cents, and wine extremely moderate. On Sundays, thousands 
of people flock here from Frankfort and Mayence, frequent- 
ing the promenades, shops, and gambling-rooms, the latter 
licensed for all the days of the week, by the Duke of Nassau. 
Wiesbaden is the capital of the Duchy, and the residence of 
the Ducal family, who, however, pay an annual visit to 
Schiangenbad, Ems, and perhaps occasionally to the other 
" Bubbles." 

First impressions are the most lasting; nothing will ever, 
I think, make stronger ones, than a first tour along the princi- 
pal street, lined with double rows of sycamores, to the 
Kur-Saal and the springs, on a fine day. Well-dressed 
ladies (better-looking and with a better carriage than you 
have yet seen in Germany), with moustached, dashing beaux, 



296 GERMANY. 

are as plenty as blackberries. Turn to the right, near the 
end of the street, into the shops forming two sides of a hollow 
square ; ascending a flight of steps, under a long portico, you 
will encounter a range of shops attended by Bohemian wo- 
men in the dress of their country, ready to vend you the 
pipes, and carved bones, and other wares, novel to your eye, 
of their country. Pass through a motley throng to the 
buildings forming the end of the square, and enter the row^e 
et noir and other gambling-rooms, fitted up with great splen- 
dour, and full of company hard at work endeavouring to attract 
the piles of gold and silver from the bank to their own keep- 
ing, but with very poor general success. Outside, in the 
shade of the house, with a beautiful artificial lake with swans 
sporting about, or fed from gentle hands, are seated the fat 
vrows and their friends, knitting or sitting beside their smok- 
ing husbands with long pipe in mouth. Very beautiful 
shaded walks, interspersed with hydrangeas, a favourite 
plant, and evidently all under the care of a neat scientific gar- 
dener, who has a fancy for American trees and rhododen- 
drons, conducts you to a carp pond, where enormous specimens 
of the finny tribe, kept and fed in the style with which the 
old monks were so familiar, and nourished in the warm water 
of the springs, — gay company, in promenade-dress, listening 
to the Duke's fuil band, — these are the appearances at the 
Kur-Saal, where pleasure seems to be spread wholesale, ready 
dished for its numerous votaries. In the evening, balls among 
lemon-trees and elegant flowers, concerts, and the faro-table, 
at which women play very high, close the day for precisely 
a similar one on the morrow. 

Leaving this scene of outward gaiety — where there must 
be many a heart that knoweth its own bitterness — cross to 
the other side of the quadrangle, where you see numbers of 
the Duke's soldiers stationed to preserve order, and take a 
leisurely view of the curious shops. In one are porcelain 
pipes ; each has a gem of a painting by an artist on its bulb ; 
the price astonishes you, for you have not been accustomed 



GERMANY. 297 

to pay twenty dollars or more for the privilege of smoking 
from a bowl with a houri in paradise depicted on it, or the 
Grand Sultan and his favourite wife, or still more beautiful 
faces. Next is a shop where they sell ware carved from 
stags' horns, inlaid with beautiful hunting-scenes in relief; 
you may purchase in this style any article of furniture, from 
a chair or picture-frame to a paper-cutter. One of the 
palaces of the Duke is furnished with such work throughout. 
Nothing could be more elegant, unless it be the wares in the 
shop at the end, where all the sides are enormous windows, 
crammed full to a great height with the most showy specimens 
of Bohemian glass ; as the light shines through the red and 
various colours, the whole appearance is that of a fairy- 
palace. Purchase a piece in the form of an inkstand or 
tumbler, and the attentive shopman, who speaks half-a-dozen 
languages, will engrave your wife or lover's name on it in a 
trice, alongside of a picture of the Castle of Johannisberg, 
which is not far from Wiesbaden, the Kur-Saal, and other 
beautiful lustre illustrations. 

A few hundred feet from hence is the Kochbrunnen or 
boiling spring, approached by an avenue of trees, where a 
number of women are ready to hand you a nice tumbler of 
the queer water ; — said tumbler in my case broke in my hand 
from the heat. The spring has the appearance of a boiling 
cauldron in violent ebullition ; it has in fact a temperature of 
156° of Fahrenheit. This is the principal spring, but there 
are fourteen others, breaking out in various places, and all used 
for drinking and bathing. The taste is said by most to resem- 
ble chicken-broth ; I can fully confirm the general impression ; 
it is covered with a greasy scum — the chickens' fat as they say. 
Early in the morning, the drinkers repair to these spots, re- 
ceive their portion of boiling broth, and glass in hand, as at 
Baden-Baden, chat and talk while it cools. At eight the 
coast is clear, all having resorted to the bath-rooms to merge 
their bodies in this cleansing and of course beautifying liquid. 
These springs were known to the Romans, and are noticed by 



298 GERMANY. 

Pliny ; a tradition declares that Nero had a palace here. " In 
addition to Roman urns, tiles, coins, lamps, bones, and such 
remains, with which the ground in and about the town teems, 
whenever the foundation of a house is dug, ancient baths have 
been discovered in several places ; and votive tablets, bearing- 
the thanks of some noble Roman to the gods for cures effected 
by the waters," are preserved at the Museum. Portions of 
the Heidenmauer (Heathens' Wall) are visible also ; it was 
begun by Drusus to defend his conquest on the Rhine from the 
Germans, and was completed by Hadrian and Caracalla ; com- 
mencing at Neuweid it is carried across the country over the 
Maine to the banks of the Danube. Some of the summits of 
the Taurus Mountain are crowned by forts or circular ram- 
parts raised by the Catti. Wiesbaden was a favourite resort 
of Charlemagne, whose palace has disappeared. The worship 
of Mythras was introduced here from Persia by the Romans, 
and set up by the Pagan priesthood in opposition to Chris- 
tianity ; some ruins of the Temple of Mythras are preserved. 
Walks to ruined towers, the Duke's hunting-lodge, where 
deer are assembled nightly by sound of horn to be fed, fine 
views from sequestered nooks on rocky heights, give one full 
employment; say, then, if I do wrong in recommending this 
place, especially as it has such celebrity for the cure of nu- 
merous maladies. 

Yours, &c. 



END OF VOL. I. 



MOORE'S 



SELECT LIBRARY. 



» A 



SUMMER'S JAUNT 



ACROSS THE WATER. 



INCLUDING 



VISITS TO ENGLAND, IRELAND, SCOTLAND, FRANCE, 
SWITZERLAND, GERMANY, BELGIUM, ETC. 



BY J. JAY SMITH, 

LIBRARIAN OF THE PHILADELPHIA AND LOGANIAN LIBRARIES. 



IN TWO VOLUMES. 

VOL. II. 



PHILADEy>HIA: 

J. .W. MOORE. 
1846. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1846, 

By J. W. MooRE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District 
of Pennsylvania. 



C. SHERMAN, PRINTER, 
19 St. James Street. 



CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 



GERMANY. 



Letter XLIX. — Scenery of the Rhine ; Not superior to that of 
the Hudson ; Its historical interest ; Castles ; French lady in a 
difficulty ; Tower giants ; Pepin to Bonaparte ; Rhine wine 
regions; Terraces; Castle of Reinstein; Toll at Caub ; Jew's 
toll ; Marshal Blucher ; Echo of Lurlei ; Johannesburg ; A 
cheap castle ; Ehrenbreitstein ; Coblentz ; More Americans ; 
Bonn; Cologne, - - -- - - - - 15 

Letter L. — Churches and fortifications ; The town ; Relic super- 
stitions ; The cathedral ; Incomplete ; Efforts to finish it ; Tomb 
of the Three Kings ; Wise men of the East ; Relics ; Enthusi- 
asm ; The tombs ; Paintings ; Church of the Eleven Thousand 
Virgins ; The bones ; The jug of the water turned into wine ; 
Legend of the Virgins, 22 

BELGIUM. 

Letter LI. — Belgian railroads ; Their advantages ; Regulations ; 
Liege ; Women's work ; Manufactures ; Tunnels ; Monks ; 
Brussels ; Hotel de Bellevue ; Valet de place ; American 
minister, Mr. Clemson ; American politics ; Arrival of King 
Leopold ; His family ; Cathedral of St. Gudule ; Fete of the Ma- 
donna; Plenary indulgences ; Great preparations; Confusion; 
Carved pulpit ; Monuments ; Miraculous wafers, - - 37 

Letter LII. — Paris in miniature ; Cleanly ; Octroi duty ; The 
park ; Wounded trees ; Jardin des Plantes ; Fine arts ; Hotel de 
Ville ; Grande Place ; Maison du Roi ; Duchess of Richmond's 
ball ; The AUe Verte ; Antwerp ; The pet of Napoleon ; Rail- 
road routes ; Duke of Alva ; Revolution of 1830 ; The Exchange ; 

1* 



VI CONTENTS. 

Canes ; Pictures ; Rubens ; Vandyck ; House of Rubens ; An 
humble picture-dealer ; Descent from the Cross ; Private gallery 
of Mademoiselle Herry ; The silk manufacturers' gallery, 42 

ENGLAND. 

Letter LIII. — Reasons for haste ; Rubens ; Depart for Ostend ; 
Railroad companions ; The commerce of Antwerp ; Contrast 
with Philadelphia; Bruges and Ghent not seen; Difficulty of 
procuring information ; Annoyance; Ostend; The quay; Bath- 
ing time ; Machines ; A good sea bath ; The bathers ; Kneeling 
in the street; Government steamer; Old companions; Sea- 
sickness ; Dover ; Custom-house ; Smuggling cameos ; Rail to 
London, 55 

Letter LIV. — The Queen and her husband ; Various opinions 
respecting their happiness ; Is she deranged ? A crazy dynasty ; 
Its result ; No symptoms of insanity apparent ; Natural wish to 
travel ; The Queen the stronger lover of the two ; She rules ; 
Her temper; Her apron strings; Jonathan's opinion; Current 
stories ; Anecdote at Taymouth Castle ; The confounded white 
ponies; Prince Albert's position; His occupations, tastes, and 
amusements ; Pheasants and dogs ; Will not be king ; The 
Queen patronises foreign artists ; William and Mary Howitt ; 
Their residence ; How engaged; Party there, - - 58 

Letter LV. — Publishing; John Murray's store; Lady Hester 
Stanhope's Memoirs ; Book business ; Second-hand book-shops ; 
Dealers in copper-plates ; Vamped-up books ; Hack-writers ; 
Love Letters of Mrs. Piozzi ; Their American history ; Conway, 
the actor ; His curious career in the United States ; His suicide 
at Charleston ; Fate of the Love Letters ; Their lover-like cha- 
racter; Literature, - - - - - - - - 63 

Letter LVI. — Visit to the neighbourhood of Windsor ; Mr. Jesse ; 
Reign of the Stuarts ; Mrs. Houstoun ; Eton ; Public breakfast ; 
Dr. Hawtrey ; The examination ; Boys in full dress ; Speeches ; 
Public dinner ; Plate; Colonel Howard Vyse, his reputation, 
his mansion, a gardener, his drawings of the Pyramids ; Wall- 
fruits ; Grapes and pine-apples; Cedarof Lebanon ; The Queen's 
kitchen-garden, its cost ; Forcing-houses ; Strawberries ; Ame- 
rican present for the Queen; Canvass-back ducks, - 67 



CONTENTS. Vll 

Letter LVII. — Extravagances of royalty ; Windsor Castle; Pen- 
sioners ; The kitchen ; Its size ; The housekeeper ; Manager of 
the cuisine ; The Queen's dining-room ; Uncertainty of the royal 
family's presence ; Emigrating pages ; Queen's dining-room ; 
George the Fourth's silver wine-cooler; Private apartments ; 
Royal private library ; Its appearance ; Contents and furniture ; 
Presentation copies; Often returned; Queen Anne's closet; 
View of the Gold Room ; Twelve millions of dollars in plate ; 
A king's advocacy of the slave trade ; George the Fourth's 
snuff-boxes; Nell Gwynn's bellows; The golden peacock; 
TippooSaib's footstool; Golden candelabra ; Gold plates, knives, 
forks, and spoons ; The king of the Gold Room ; Windsor the 
pride of the nation, 72 

Letter LVIII. — Expense of royalty ; Appointments to office ; 
The land and deer of royalty ; The quantity stated ; The poor in 
contrast ; Royal dogs ; The cost of the royal stables ; Royal car- 
riages ; Liveries ; The Queen's sleigh ; Prince of Wales and his 
sister; Goat team ; Well-fed groom ; Master of the Queen's 
buck-hounds; The doggery; Ride to Virginia Waler; Prince 
Albert's pheasants, their feeders ; Acres of coops; The greatest 
grape-vine ; A fairy scene ; Virginia Water ; Frigate at anchor ; 
George the Fourth's fish-house; Artificial ruins; The falls; 
Anecdote ; English inn, 78 

Letter LIX, — Remarkable trees in Windsor Park ; Kernels oak ; 
Prince Albert's popularity spoiled ; Measurement of two trees; 
St. George's chapel; Order of the Garter; Royal dust ; Vanity 
of ambition ; Benjamin West ; His fame on the wane ; Disinter- 
ment of Charles the First ; Henry the Eighth's coffin ; Byron's 
sarcasm ; Death of the Princess Charlotte ; Her monument, &c.; 
Vandyck room ; Queen's drawing-room ; The king's ; The 
king's closet ; Throne -room ; Waterloo chamber; Ball-room; 
Guard chamber ; Nelson's ship ; Marlboro' and Wellington, 83 

Letter LX. — The tomb of Gray; Gray's Church; Two funerals 
in his churchyard ; The service in the church ; At the graves ; 
Rev. Mr. Shaw ; Tomb of genius ; The Churchyard ; Tomb of 
Gray's aunt and mother ; Touching inscription ; Gray's tablet ; 
Monument raised by John Penn ; Lines on it, - - 89 

Letter LXI. — Mr. Charles Dickens ; His popularity ; His income ; 



Vlll CONTENTS. 

His intimates ; His home ; His purposes ; His American book ; 
Mr, Willis ; Sir E. L. Bulwer ; His lady ; The water-cure ; Mr. 
James ; Novels by threes and fours ; His history ; Novels dic- 
tated ; Mrs. Gore ; " Vathek" Beckford papers ; Agathonia; A 
mystifier and the most voluminous female writer ; A dasher ; 
Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Hunt ; Sir Percy Byssche Shelley ; His 
generosity ; Mrs. Shelley, 92 

Letter LXII. — The Duke of Wellington ; Anecdote ; The Italian 
opera ; The Queen its patron ; She is a musician ; Duke and 
Duchess of Cambridge ; The Duke of Wellington and the Mar- 
chioness of Douro ; The chief of Waterloo a musical amateur ; 
Sleeps at the opera ; The Duke of Cambridge at church ; Women 
of fashion gamble in railroad stocks ; Lady Ailesbury ; Mrs. 
Opie ; Mrs. Ellis ; Her success not warranted ; Mrs. Napier's 
"Woman's Rights;" A morning of deer-shooting; Battue; 
Murder of a buck ; Keepers ; Trophy, - - - - 96 

Letter LXIIL — British and Foreign Aid Society ; Merle D' Au- 
bigne ; His speech ; His persecution by the Pope ; His manner 
and appearance ; The Pope and railroads ; Railroad mania in Eng- 
land ; Its great height ; Reports of directors ; Increase of travel 
and traffic ; Reduction of prices and consequent increase of profit ; 
Frequent trains; First-class coaches; Gepps's Folly; Queen 
Elizabeth; Nuns, - - 101 

Letter LXIV. — Life insurance ; Its importance ; Much practised ; 
Hailstorm Insurance Company ; Patronage of the fine arts ; 
Parliamentary appropriations ; Death of Earl Grey ; Other noble- 
men ; Farming in England ; Crops ; Stock ; Sales ; Tenant 
farmers ; A specimen ; His dwelling and establishment ; Rural 
England ; Degradation of the working class ; Razor-strop farmer ; 
Theoretical agriculture expensive, 105 

Letter LXV. — Madame Tussaud's exhibition; Its attractions ; 
Zoological Gardens, as a garden ; The donkey employed ; His 
usefulness ; Should be introduced into America ; Distances in 
London ; The Glaciarium not to be found ; Polytechnic institu- 
tion ; Its nature ; National Gallery ; Hampton Court ; Pictures ; 
Fountains in Trafalgar Square ; Nelson memorial ; Walking 
advertisements; " Down's hat-guards," ... 109 



CONTENTS. IX 

Letter LXVI. — Politics in England ; Causes of the interest taken 
in them ; Will there be a revolution ? Rise of the Whig and 
Tory parties ; Meaning of the terms ; Long Whig tenure of 
office ; Long Tory tenure of office ; Catholic emancipation ; 
Tories obliged to resign in 1830 ; Reform Bill ; Rejected by the 
Lords ; Fearful state of the country ; Final passage of the bill ; 

' Subsequent movements of parties ; Position of the present 
ministry ; Future prospects, • 117 

Letter LXVII. — British Museum ; Rosetta Stone, &c, ; Colos- 
seum ; The ruins ; The cave ; Swiss scenery ; The ascending 
room; The Panorama of London; The Taylors of Norwich; 
Mrs. Austin ; Lady Duff Gordon ; Miss Kirby ; Historical asso- 
ciations, 124 

Letter LX VIII. — Anastatic printing ; Learn the art ; English 
patentees ; Presses at work ; Particular adaptation to plans, &c. ; 
Rapidity of reproduction; Maps ; Illustrated works ; Holmes's 
old Map of the Province of Pennsylvania, republished in Phila- 
delphia ; But few copies printed ; Loudon on Cemeteries in pre- 
paration; Mr. Faraday's lecture ; Chambers's article. Phono- 
graphy, 130 

Letter LXIX. — The League Bazaars; Cause of the movement ; 
Lord John Russell's resolutions; State of the poor; Prospects 
of a repeal of the Corn Laws ; Influence of free trade upon in- 
ternational peace ; Contributions to the Bazaars ; Bearing of free 
trade upon American interests, 138 

Letter LXX, — The wet weather ; Its probable influence on the 
Corn Laws ; Leave London ; Leamington Spa ; A dull season ; 
The shooting parties ; Sportsmen ; Price of shooting privileges ; 
Kenil worth Castle, its present state ; Warwick Castle, an ex- 
emplar of baronial grandeur ; The Grevilles and Brookes ; 
Countess of Warwick; Approach to the Castle; Meeting an 
American; Caesar's Tower; General view ; Warwick Vase ; 
The Great Hall ; The Cicerone ; The pictures ; Queen Anne's 
bed ; Beauchamp Chapel, 143 

Letter LXXI. — Fashion; Sportsmen; Derby; The Arboretum 
founded by Mr. Strutt ; How laid out ; How the trees and shrubs 
are labelled; Regulations; Lodges for parties; A place for 
study ; Books on botany gratis ; Opposed by the clergy ; The 



X CONTENTS. 

question divides society into parties ; Gentlemen's band ; The 
Anniversary; Crow^d ; Caught in the rain; A scene; Apology 
for the weather, -.--..-. 152 

Letter LXXII. — Matlock ; The spar factories ; Haddon Hall ; a 
good exemplar of a baronial castle as it v^^as ; Kitchen, &c., &c. ; 
The family cradle; Queen Elizabeth's state bed; Goblins; 
Garden ; Duke of Rutland ; The farmer ; Antiques, - 156 

Letter LXXIII. — Interesting neighbourhood ; Newstead Abbey, 
&c. ; Chatsworth, the mode of showing it ; Fees ; Princely es- 
tablishment ; Pictures and statues ; Conservatory ; Green-house ; 
The great fountain ; The Duke ; Earl of Burlington ; Cricket ; 
Secret history of the Duke of Devonshire ; The rock- work ; Visit 
of the Queen ; Extortion attempted, - - - - 160 

Letter LXXIV. — Sheffield ; Luggage ; Nobility ; Lackeys ; 
Rogers' cutlery ; Grinding and polishing ; Unhealthy occupation ; 
Silver plating ; Rail to York ; Walls invaded ; Birthplace of 
Constantine ; History; The Cathedral; Castle of William L ; 
Clifford's Tower; Ruins of St. Mary's Abbey; Newcastle on 
Tyne ; Cold reception ; English hotels ; Start for Melrose 
through the moors ; Jedburg, -.--.- 165 

SCOTLAND. 

Letter LXXV. — Melrose ; My companion ; Walter Scott, clothier; 
Melrose Abbey ; Annoyance ; Village in commotion ; A caravan 
of animals; Female Van Amburgh ; Sir Walter's advice to 
Lockhart ; His .^eath scene ; The funeral ; Dryburgh Abbey ; 
Scott's grave, - 173 

Letter LXX VI. — Grounds of Dryburgh ; Abbotsford ; Situation ; 
Reception ; American visiters the most numerous except Scotch ; 
Hall of entrance ; Rob Roy's gun, &c. ; Chantrey's bust ; The 
dining-room ; Library ; Scott's study ; Clothes ; Dogs gone ; The 
French flag ; Trees of Sir Walter's planting ; The Tweed ; In- 
vited to lodge at Abbotsford ; Letter from the present Sir Walter 
from India ; Indifferent to the literary fame of his father ; A 
great nephew of Sir Walter's a steamboat captain, - 177 



CONTENTS. XI 

Letter LXXVII. — Lockhart, his appearance, his daughter; 
Rumour ; The Quarterly Review ; Its contributors ; Croker ; 
Mr. Milman; Mr. Hayward; Mr. Kinglake, author of Eothen ; 
Lord Strangford ; Hon, Mr. Smythe ; " Young England ;" Miss 
Rigby ; Mrs. Austin ; Sir Walter's influence ; His guests ; Laid- 
iaw ; Melancholy reflections ; Melrose Abbey ; The clock ; Re- 
flections among the ruins ; Duke of Buccleugh ; Scotch t»oy ; 
Thomas the Rhymer ; The poet Thomson, - - . 182 

Letter LXXVIII. — Abbotsford ; Reflections ; Galashiels ; Tweed 
manufacture ; Ganders- cle ugh ; Hogg the poet ; Moors ; Ap- 
proach to Edinburgh ; Scotch hospitality; Sir Walter's monu- 
ment ; History of the architect, Kemp ; Holyrood ; The castle ; 
Nuisance ; The regalia ; Story of the taking of the castle ; 
Printing office of Robert Chambers ; The proprietor ; Descen- 
dants of the Stuarts ; John Sobieski Stuart ; Charles Edward ; 
Botanic and horticultural garden, 190 

Letter LXXIX. — Appearance of Edinburgh ; Fish-women ; 
Their pride; John Knox's house; Scottish secession; Its 
estranging influence ; Dirty churches ; Leave Edinburgh ; Perth ; 
Birnam Wood ; Dunkeld ; Duke of Athol's grounds ; The 
larches ; The present Duke a hopeless idiot ; Lord Glenlyon ; 
Posting ; Killiecrankie ; Blair Athoi ; Highlands ; Castle of 
Blair ; Return to Dunkeld, 201 

Letter LXXX. — Dunkeld to Kenmore ; Aberfeldy ; Taymouth 
Castle ; Visit of the Queen ; A ranger killed ; Extent of Breadal- 
bane's possessions ; A managing lady and daughters ; A cock- 
ney; Callandar; More Americans; Commercial travellers; 
Fees ; Loch Katrine ; Row on the lake ; Steamboat sunk ; Gaelic ; 
Loch Lomond ; Glenfalloch ; Ben Lomond ; Scotch sign ; Dum- 
barton Castle ; Glasgow ; Refuge for houseless poor ; The Kirk ; 
Sir Walter's monument, ------ 208 

Letter LXXXI. — Glasgow ; Steamer Thetis ; Intercourse with 
Ireland; Beggars; Cemetery; Passage to Liverpool ; Cattle; 
Liverpool ; Embark in the Great Western ; The parting scene ; 
Punctuality, 215 

VOYAGE HOME. 
jEtter LXXXII. — Steaming across the Atlantic ; Over-crowded 



Xll CONTENTS. 

vessel ; Motley passengers ; Consuls ; The Captain ; Imposition ; 
English and American ; Tempest ; The Great Western a fine 
ship ; A night scene ; Want of cleanliness, . - - 221 

Letter LXXXIII. — Conclusion ; Cost of such a tour ; Its advan- 
tages ; Now a good time to travel ; Facilities ; Proper books ; 
False economy; A little well, or a great deal hastily ; Pleasures 
of travelling ; Advice ; First greeting in America; New York; 
Home, .......... 230 

Appendix, - r 235 



GERMANY. 



A SUMMER'S JAUNT 

ACROSS THE WATER. 



LETTER XLIX. 

Cologne. 

Scenery of the Rhine — Not superior to that of the Hudson — Its histo- 
rical interest — Castles — French lady in a difficulty — Tower giants — 
Pepin to Bonaparte — Rhine wine regions — Terraces — Castle of Rein- 
stein — Toll at Caub — Jew's toll — Marshal Blucher — Echo of Lurlei 
— Johannisburg — A cheap castle — Ehrenbreitstein — Coblentz — More 
Americans — Bonn — Cologne. 

How dare I, after so brief an acquaintance with this beau- 
tiful river, attempt to describe the Rhine scenery through 
which I have just passed I I will not even attempt it, but 
give you my impressions for just what they are worth. The 
scenery, in itself, is not superior to our own ; it has often been 
compared to that of the North River ; rest assured this does 
not surpass much that you and I have always admired on 
the Hudson. There is, however, so much of historical inte- 
rest around and the features of decaying noble castles be- 
queathed to us to show that the world was goveined by free- 
booters, who took toll on this highway of nations whenever 
they dared to do so, — every thing combines to interest and 



16 GERMANY. 

keep one constantly on the look-out ; 6o rapidly do you de- 
scend that you have scarcely got rid of one castle before 
another appears ; a town perhaps intervening", at which you 
do not stop, for the people here are like some of our non-in- 
quirers at home who seldom read — the Rhinelanders seem 
satisfied with their own country and rarely travel, just as 
your non-bookish people are quite content with what they 
already know. 

A French lady and her daughter, the elder very voluble, 
bothered me considerably on the route. All intelligent tra- 
vellers have a map of the river with the castles and towns 
carefully marked, so that by watching closely, and then 
reading a good guide-book, you get a smattering of know- 
ledge as you go ; but some wag had cut out the pictures and 
names on her map, and pasted them in wrong places ; as the 
picture when in its right place, bore also a faint likeness to 
the castle, she was almost frantic at the difficulty of following 
the route, and applied to me constantly to set her right — no 
easy matter ; but she placed implicit confidence in me and 
her map both, and was thus doubly puzzled. The worst of it 
was, she was taking notes of castles to be remembered and to 
read up to. 

How odd it is to see a pleasure party in a steamboat, passing 
these poor old paralytic tower giants — defeated giants who can 
now raise neither an arm nor a voice in self defence. These 
colossal landmarks left by the feudal sway, are like grave- 
stones often without inscription, for no one knows who erected 
many still standing. Mute witnesses of days of yore, they 
have been the scene of all sorts of events and histories for 
ten centuries past, having witnessed (the most ancient at 
least) the entrances and exits of mighty and formidable ac- 
tors — Pepin, Charlemagne, Otho the Lion, Godfrey of Bou- 
illon, Henry V., Richard CcEur de Lion, and a thousand other 
warriors. They also witnessed the passage, in litters drawn 
by mules, of the western bishops proceeding, in 1415, to the 
Council of Constance, to judge John Huss, and in 1519, to the 



GERMANY. 17 

Diet of Worms, to interrogate Luther; of Charles V., of 
Wallenstein, Tilly, Gustavus Adolphus; and the anger of 
Napoleon ; — all the fearful things which have caused old 
Europe to quake, have fallen like lightning upon these old and 
crumbling w^alls. 

We enter below Mayence upon some of the best Rhine 
wine regions ; opposite to Rheinstein the hills are so steep 
that to grow the vine it becomes necessary to make terraces 
and place the plant in baskets filled with earth carried from 
below. Ill some places there are more than twenty terraces 
rising a thousand feet high. Manure too must be carried up 
on the shoulders of the peasants, male and female, who must 
scale the precipices, and hang as it were from the face of the 
rocks. Rich speculators reap the profits of the vintage, the 
poor vintner not having capital sufficient to wait for, or to find 
a market. 

The castle of Rheinstein is one of the most beautiful and 
is among the first to be encountered below Mayence. It is 
also one of the two that have been thoroughly restored. 
Perched upon its several crags, nothing of the kind that I 
have ever seen gave me so much pleasure ; it has all the air of 
defence^ and yet it is cleaner and neater than you would expect 
it to have been in the days of chivalry. It is shown to visiters 
by its noble owners. At Caub a toll is paid to the Duke of 
Nassau by all vessels navigating the Rhine ; he is the last 
chieftain remaining on the river who exercises this privilege ; 
mark the change ! — for nearly all the strongholds were 
erected as toll-houses, where might made right. At one, be- 
low Mayence, there was a Jews' toll, and dogs were trained 
to single out and seize the Hebrews from other passengers. 
But we must not pass the Mouse Tower, on a little island in 
the river, for Southey has written to our hands — 



2* 



GERMANY. 



THE TRADITION OF BTSHOP HATTO. 

The summer and autumn had been so wet. 
That in winter the corn was growing- yet ; 
'Twas a piteous sight to see all around 
The grain lie rotting' on the ground. 

Every day the starving- poor 
Crowded around Bishop's Hatto's door. 
For he had a plentiful last-year's store ; 
And all the neiglibourhood could tell 
His granaries were furnished well. 

At last Bishop Hatto appointed a day 

To quiet the poor without delay ; 

He bade them to his great barn repair, 

And they should have food for the winter there. 

Rejoiced at such tidings good to hear^ 
The poor folk flocked from far and near ; 
The great barn was full as it could hold 
Of women "and children, and young and old. 

Then when he saw it could hold no more. 
Bishop Hatto he made fast the door ; 
And while for mercy on Christ they call. 
He set fire to the barn and burnt them all. 

"P faith, 'tis an excellent bonfire!" quoth be, 
" And the country is greatly obliged to me. 
For ridding it, in these times forlorn, 
Of rats that only consume the corn." 

So then to his palace returned he, 
And he sat down to supper merrily. 



GERMANY. 19 

And he slept that night like an innocent man, 
But Bishop Hatto never slept again. 

In the morning-, as he entered the hall 
Where his picture hung against the wall, 
A sweat like death all over him came, 
For the rats had eaten it out of its frame. 

As he look'd, there came a man from his farm. 
He had a countenance white with alarm ; 
*' My lord, I open'd your granaries this morn, 
And the rats had eaten all your corn." 

Another came running presently, 
And he was pale as pale could be ; 
" Fly ! my lord bishop, fly !" quoth he, 
" Ten thousand rats are coming this way ; 
The Lord forgive you for yesterday ?" 

" I'll go to my tower on the Rhine," replied he, 
" 'Tis the safest place in Germany ; 
The walls are high, and the shores are steep. 
And the stream is strong, and the water deep." 

Bishop Hatto fearfully hastened away. 
And he cross'd the Rhine without delay, 
And he reach'd his tower, and barr'd with care 
All the windows, doors, and loopholes there. 

He laid him down, and closed his eyes ; 

But soon a scream made him arise ; 

He started, and saw two eyes of flame 

On his pillow, from whence the screaming came. 

He listen'd and look'd; — it was only the cat; 
But the bishop he grew more fearful for that, 



20 GERMANY. 

For she sat screaming, mad with fear 

At the army of rats that were drawing near. 

For they have swam over the river so deep, 
And they have climbed the shores so steep, 
And now by thousands up they crawl 
To the holes and windows in the wall. 

Down on his knees the bishop fell, 

And faster and faster his beads did he tell, 

As louder and louder drawing near 

The saw of their teeth without he could hear. 

And in at the windows, and in at the door. 

And through the walls by thousands they pour, 

And down through the ceiling, and up through the floor, 

From the right and the left, from behind and before, 

From within and without, from above and below, 

And all at once to the bishop they go. 

They have whetted their teeth against the stones, 
And now they pick the bishop's bones ; 
They gnawed the flesh from every limb, 
For they were sent to do judgment on him. 

It was from the heights above Caub that the view of the 
Rhine first burst upon the Prussians under Blucher, who 
crossed it here, and drew forth one simultaneous and exulting 
cry of triumph. At the precipice of Lurleiburg we were 
saluted in passing, by a man who lives in a grotto, and is em- 
ployed by strangers to aviraken echoes by means of firing a 
gun ; some visiters had just feed him, and we had the benefit 
of the very remarkable echo of Lurlei. The German students 
amuse themselves by asking " Who is the burgomaster of 
Oberwesel ?" a place opposite. Answer — Esel (the German 
for ass), a joke of which the burgomaster highly disapproves. 



German: Y. 21 

The chateau of Johannisberg, celebrated the world over for 
its wine, and the property of Prince Metternich, is a very- 
conspicuous object on your right, at some distance from the 
river. Its produce of wine is said to be worth thirty thousand 
dollars per annum ; the extent of the vineyard is about sixty- 
two a^cres. It would be very easy to fill a dozen letters with 
descriptions of the castles thickly strown all- the way to Cob- 
lentz ; not so easy is it to convey a correct idea of them by 
words. Some of the old ruins, indeed most of them, are 
worthless ; one was not long since offered for sale without 
finding a purchaser, for fifty dollars; it is that of Stolzenfels, 
on a jutting rock, one of the finest on the Rhine ; the town of 
Coblentz presented it to the present King of Prussia, by whom 
it was restored, not in the most tasteful manner. 

Ehrenbreitstein (honour's broad stone) is a celebrated fortress 
connected with Coblentz by a bridge of boats ; it is well 
termed the Gibraltar of the Rhine, as the following statistics 
will prove. It is capable of holding fourteen thousand men, 
while the magazines are large enough to contain provisions for 
eight thousand men for ten years. It is defended by four 
hundred pieces of cannon. The platform on the top of the 
rock, serving as a parade, covers vast arched cisterns, capable 
of holding a supply of water for three years; there is also a 
well sunk four hundred feet deep, communicating with the 
Rhine. The exterior view is very imposing. 

Coblentz is a place of some importance in a business as well 
as military point of view. Our steamboat stopped here a 
short time, sufficiently long to take on board a number of 
passengers; among them again were several Americans, 
whom I had previously met, and to rejoin whom gave me 
great pleasure. Two gentlemen from New York I had found 
on board at Mannheim, who were returning from Rome, so 
that we had quite an agreeable home party. We took a 
hasty glance at the banks of the Moselle, and proceeded 
rapidly on our way down to Cologne, passing Bonn, the place 



22 GERMANY. 

where Prince Albert received his education, and where great 
preparations are making for the Beethoven festival on the 
arrival of the Queen of England. 

Very truly, &c. 



LETTER L. 

Cologne. 

Churches and fortifications — ^The town — Relic superstitions — The ca- 
thedral — Incomplete — Efforts to' finish it — Tomb of the Three Kings 
— Wise men of the East — Relics — Enthusiasm — The tombs — Paint- 
ings — Church of the Eleven Thousand Virgins — The bones — The 
jug of the water turned into wine — Legend of the Virgins. 

I HAVE made the tour of the churches and the fortifications 
of this city, and will detain you a moment with two or three 
remarkable points. The town has a heavy, dead-and-alive 
appearance, as will always be the case where the people are 
priest-ridden ; soldiers and fortifications do not add to the 
intelligence of the inhabitants ; the fourteen steamboats which 
pass up the Rhine, either touching at Cologne, or starting 
from it for Mannheim with travellers, have yet exercised only 
a portion of their destined influence on mind ; we are painfully 
oppressed after visiting the churches, and conclude this is the 
result of finding the people under the influence of the super- 
stitions of old Roman papacy, to a degree we had not yet 
encountered, — the real old relic superstitions of the last 
centuries linger here in all the strength with which Rome 
can bind them on. Let me tell you what I saw without 
further comment. 

The cathedral is one of the grandest in its design in Europe, 
but though begun in 1248, it remains nearly as far from com- 



GERMANY. 23 

pletion as it was two hundred years ago ; huge briars and 
stone-crops are growing out of the " old-ruin-looking" walls 
at one end, while workmen are slowly piling block upon block 
upon another. Its vastness can only be understood by making 
its entire circuit. You are then convinced that if finished, it 
would deserve the name of the St. Peter's of the north. So 
long has this vast edifice been in progress that the name of 
the architect who designed it has been lost. Money from the 
pious continues to be procured by various processes for its 
completion ; kings and popes contribute, and ladies in all 
parts of Germany employ their skill in making articles for 
fairs in aid of the work, but it still lingers. The following 
superstitious legend is given as the reason of the delay : 



A LEGEND OF COLOGNE. 

Some time in the thirteenth century, when Cologne was 
but a collection of rude dwellings clustered together upon the 
Rhine's left bank, the Archbishop Conrad determined to erect 
the nucleus of a grand city, in the form of a grand cathedral. 
He announced his intention, and from all parts of Europe 
architects travelled to the Rhine, and every architect contri- 
buted a plan, each more splendid than the other. But the 
archbishop was not so easily pleased. He picked holes in 
every design sent to him. None realized his heau ideal 
of a cathedral. The architects were nonplussed. Some of 
them, it is to be hoped, took heart of grace and went home 
again ; but one poor fellow, who had passed months in dream- 
ing of ogees and designing clock towers, was so utterly over- 
come by the criticism of the fastidious archbishop, that he 
resolved to put an end alike to his designs and his woes in the 
stream of the Rhine. And so he wandered disconsolately to 
the bank. Seated on a heap of shingle, he had made one last 
attempt. It was vain ; and, dashing pencil and compass into 
the water, he rose in the act of following them. 



24 GERMANY. 

A croaking laugh behind startled him. He turned round 
and saw a little man grinning. 

" Much, indeed, to drown oneself for," sneered the little 
man. " Pshaw, 'tis so easy to plan a cathedral." 

" I should like to see you do it," said the Pecksniff of the 
thirteenth century, in a sulky tone. 

The little man laughed again, and traced with his stick a 
tower upon the sand. " Look there !" he said. 

The architect looked and trembled. The design was per- 
fect, marvellous, of unearthly beauty. 

The little man laughed again. 

" Put down your name to the parchment," quoth he. " You 
shall be mine, and the cathedral yours. 

" Get thee behind me, Satan," quoth the young man. 

Nevertheless, he looked with longing eyes upon the tower 
traced in the sand. The devil saw his chance. 

" Truly, now," he argued, " what I offer is cheap at the 
price. You shall have an immortality of fame, and for one 
soul, a cathedral worth the soul of the archbishop and all his 
chapter put together, to say nothing at all of your own." 

And as he spoke a glorious vision of the cathedral of Cologne 
rose by glamour before the artist's eyes. 

He thought for a moment, la femme que detibere est perdue^ 
and so in this instance was the architect. 

" Give me the plan. If it be approved of by the archbishop, 
the cathedral is mine and my soul is yours. I shall meet you 
here tomorrow." 

" So be it," quoth the emperor of darkness, adding, in a 
polite tone, " La nuit porte conseiiy 

Off went the architect to the archbishop and told him the 
story. The archbishop had no objection to have the devil for 
the designer of his cathedral, but he thought that there could 
be no harm in tricking him if possible. To cheat, as an ab- 
stract position, was certainly wrong ; but to cheat the devil 
was quite decorous, and, in fact, rather commendable than 
otherwise. So the archbishop convoked his chapter, and they 



GERMANY. 25 

laid their h«ads solemnly together to concoct a scheme to 
swindle the prince of the powers of the air. The matter 
was soon arranged, and next morning the artist, armed with 
a most potent relic, betook himself to the rendezvous. 

" Here is the deed," said the little man, holding it out in 
his claw ; " it only wants your signature." 

" Avaunt, Satan !" exclaimed the architect, dashing asido 
the unsigned deed, and clutching the plan which he was in 
the act of handing to his sable friend. But the little man 
was too quick for him : he clutched the plan too. 

" Avaunt !" shouted the artist again poking the relic under 
his antagonist's nose. 

There was a moment's struggle, but the odour of sanctity 
distilling from the amylet was too much for Satan. Tearing 
away the portion of the drawing which he had grasped, he 
exclaimed, in a terrible voice, his features darkening and his 
form dilating, " Thou hast won what remains to thee by a 
foul trick : never shall thy stolen cathedral be finished or thy 
name be known to posterity !" 

And he melted into the earth. The artist, a little dismayed, 
ran off to the archbishop. Not more than half of the plan 
remained entire. What was drawn was built, but the art of 
man could never supply the last portions, and so the prophecy 
was fulfilled. The cathedral is unfinished, the name of the 
architect unknown, facts which, of course, prove the authen- 
ticity of the history. 

So much for the legend of Cologne cathedral. 

The choir alone is completed, and nothing can excel the ele- 
gance of its form, the lightness of its windows, and the high 
finishing of the sculptured ornaments; the light, too, admitted 
through the painted glass, has something sacred in its hue ; 
yet the effect of all this is sadly disminished by gaudy and 
paltry ornaments, such as are considered indispensable in the 
celebration of divine worship in Catholic countries. Instead 
©f richly carved stalls, the choir is hung with tapestry, beau- 
tiful, but sadly misplaced. I followed the sacristan to the 

VOL. II. 3 



26 GERMANY. 

tomb of the " Three King-s" or the three wise men, who came, 
guided by a star, to worship the infant Saviour ; even their 
names are recorded, written in rubies on a tablet in front of 
the shrine ; a fee of a dollar opened the tomb situated near 
the wall, above ground ; it contains the skulls of the Three 
Kings or wise men ! richly studded with precious stones of 
every description, said to be worth two hundred thousand of 
our dollars. To prevent pilfering, these precious relics are 
enclosed within iron bars, and behind them is the silver shrine 
of St. Engelbert, like a model of a college or church, and de- 
clared to be worth, with its invaluable enclosed relics, any 
price you please. The tall keeper of these relics took his 
money in advance from^ all the party, went into the tomb and 
lighted up its confined space, «,nd when we entered there was 
such a smell of lucifer matches, and oil smoke, that I was 
obliged soon to leave it. My companions thought the skulls 
of the wise men were not as large as those of the unwise 
who had paid for such a sight;, they declared, moreover, 
that the precious stones were false, the veritable having been 
carried off by the French. I felt as if I eared little about 
them ; the whole exhibition in its nature is the same, marking 
a debased religion. Can you now wonder at the belief pre- 
valent in Germany, of the existence of the coat of our 
Saviour 1 

Leaving this celebated shrine, I perambulated the church. 
A forest of various-sized columns, protected at their bases by 
wooden palisades^ presented themselves. To the left there 
are four windows admitting a brilliant light, which reaches 
though the entire arch. The grave voices of the choristers 
and prebends, the beautiful Latin of the psalms floating through 
the church, the clouds of incense, the music of the organ, the 
kneeling worshippers — all this surrounded by work-benches^ 
and hammers, and saws, gave evidences of Catholic piety 
such as I had witnessed in smaller buildings, but in this, the 
enthusiasm of numeroias successive generations still seemed 



GERMANY. 27 

beating with the pulse of life, endeavouring- to complete a 
great undertaking. 

The railing of the choir is an exquisite specimen of the 
iron- work of the fifteenth century ; carved pulpits, Madonnas 
covered with spangles, poor-boxes with padlocks, chapels rich 
with noble sculpture, paintings of every period, tombs of every 
form, bishops in granite reposing in a fortress ; others borne 
by a procession of weeping angels ; bishops of brass, stretched 
upon the ground; bishops in boxwood, kneeling before an al- 
tar; generals leaning on their sepulchres; crusaders, each 
with his dog lying affectionately against his steel-clad heels ; 
statues of the apostles in cloth of gold ; confessionals in oak, 
with their twisted columns; nobly carved stalls; baptismal 
fonts ; altar stones embellished with little Cupids ; fragments 
of stained glass; tapestries after designs by Rubens; cabinets 
with painted doors and gilded shutters; and much of this 
in a neglected state bordering upon dirt, and many of the 
statues mutilated, with spiders' webs between their feet or 
hands. Have you now any idea of the cathedral of Cologne 1 

The banks of the Rhine below our hotel are strown with 
huge blocks of stone for the cathedral; some lazy fellows are 
hoisting others by the slow process of a hand-windlass from a 
boat ; they look as if they would go to sleep between each 
effort ; it is all in character — centuries may elapse and find 
trees growing in the south porch at which the architect is 
now labouring with similar sleepy activity ; he estimates the 
cost of finishing the nave alone at three millions of dollars. 

The church of St Ursula, or of the 11,000 virgins, next 
claimed our attention. We hardly knew what to expect, 
though " Murray" had informed us that the bones of these 
pious ladies met the eye, " above, below, around ;" we were 
not prepared on entering to find most of thje walls hollow and 
the spaces behind gratings filled with human bones ; they are 
every where " above," and moreover, there are more of them 
buried under the pavement, and a select few were shown 
carefully deposited in glass cases under the fonts. Here are 



28 GERMANY. 

found one of the stone vessels which held the water that was 
turned into wine! a link of St. Peter's chain which fell off 
when the angel sumnjoned him from prison, &c. 

As this church has made a deep impression on my mind, 
and as its history will exemplify the kind of improbabilities be- 
lieved in by some people still alive in this world of ours, you 
will give me credit for hunting- up the followiBg legend, 
which is still the received one : 

ST. URSULA AND THE ELEVEN THOUSAND VIRGINS. 

In the year of Grace 220, Vionetas, and Daria his spouse, 
ruled over Britain. One thing alone was wanted to make 
them completely happy — they had no offspring. Early and 
late, morn, noon, and night, th-ey,put up their prayers to God, 
that the kingly stock of Vionetus might not be suffered to die 
with him. Years but added to their anxiety, in place of al- 
leviating it. At length it pleased Providence to hear their 
prayer; but it was only, as it were, half conceded. Daria 
gave birth to a daughter. They named her Ursula. From 
her earliest youth upwards, to the maturity of womanhood, 
she walked in the ways of righteousness, and sought favour 
in the eyes of God ; and she seemed to have found it abun- 
dantly. For she was beautiful beyond belief — far outshining 
all the virgins of her father^s court ; and her modesty, and all 
other maidenly virtues, were co-equal with her loveliness. 
So much, indeed, was she celebrated for them, that her fame 
extended itself, not only all over her father's realm, but also 
through the wide extent of Germany, as far as the Hercynian 
Forest, and induced Agrippinus, a pow^erful monarch of the 
Alemanni, to send ambassadors to Britain, with a proposal of 
marriage to her for his only son. 

But the pious Ursula had given her heart to God ; she, there- 
fore, heard with unwillingness and much trouble the proffers 
of the prince ; and when her father pressed her acquiescence 
in them, she mildly, but decidedly refused, on the gToundthat 
she had devoted herself solely to the service of her Maker, 



GERMANY, 29 

and that any earthly en^gement would be incompatible with 
the due performance of its duties. Vionetus was much 
grieved at this resolution of his daughter ; but he did nothing to 
disturb it. On the contrary, he called together the ambassa- 
dors of Agrippinus, told them the result of his attempt, and 
prayed their master to excuse him of accepting the alliance 
tendered by them. The ambassadors, however, were unwil- 
ling to take this excuse, or to appear before their soveriegn 
without accomplishing their object; and, under various pre- 
tences, they prolonged their stay at the court for a conside- 
rable period after they had received their formal dismissal. 
In that time the king, Vionetus, had a vision of the night. 
He dreamt that an angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and 
bade him, in the name of the Most High, tell his daughter of 
her dispensation. 

" Say to her,*" spake the celestial messenger, *' that she is 
permitted to marry ; for God wills not the child should be a 
cause of sorrow to the father. The Lord has said it." 

Vionetus awoke in raptures ; and in due course communi- 
cated the heavenly command to his daughter. The omen 
was acquiesced in ; and the fortunate, or far-seeing ambassa- 
dors, returned to their master, accompanied by the beautiful 
object of their mission. To make her train worthy of its 
greatness and power, her father selected eleven thousand of 
the loveliest and best-born virgins in Britain; and, on the day 
appointed, Ursula at their head, radiant in beauty, they em- 
barked, hand in hand, from the harbour of Harwich, singing 
hymns in the praise of Him *' who preserveth those that go 
down unto the great deep," and followed by the prayers and 
blessings of the king and all his people. 

There was no man on board either of the argosies in which 
were contained this fair and gentle cargo ; nor were any of 
that sex trusted to navigate them. The power v/hich pro- 
tects innocence, and defends truth, — that power which 
" tempers the wind to the shorn lamb," was with them, and 
stood in stead of nautical skill, and masculine strength, and 

3* 



30 G E R M A N Y. 

every ordinary requisite for a voyag^e over the wide ocean. 
Tlie hand of God guided them through the untracked sea, and 
hushed the waves and stilled the storms. It is a glorious sight 
to imagine, — how much more so must it have befin to see, — 
that splendid fleet, those thousands of maidens, pure as an- 
gels, fair as doves, staDdiug on the declis, each vessel walking 
along the undulating waters, "like a thing of life," the white 
sails swelled with the odorous aire of summer, and the vaelts of 
heaven echoing to the melody of their sweet voices, v*'hich 
even the enraptured fislies flocked arxmnd to hear. Thus 
sped they on their way rejoicing for three days ; on the fourth, 
still conducted hy the invisible agency which piloted them 
safely over the pathless deep, they ascended the Rhine, and 
stopped before the eity of Cologne. 

At that time Cologne was governed, for the Emperor 
Maximin the Tbracian, wha reigned in Rome, by the Prcetor 
Aquilinus. He was a Christian at heart, though bis sove- 
reign was a persecutor ; aitd, on learning- the quali?.y and 
creed, and all the other circumstances of his visiters, he 
received them as beings sent by God. After they had re- 
freshed themselves with all that this great eity could afford, 
they proceeded up the river, passing the towns and cities ob 
their way v«Mth blessings from the simple dvyellers on the 
shores, until they arrived at Basel, or Basle. At this city 
they were met by Pantulus, the Roman prsetor of Helvetia, 
accompanied by a crowd of Christians, and received with all 
honour. 

One of the conditions under which Ursula accepted the 
proposal of Agrippisius for bis son was, that on the celebra- 
tion of the marriage, she should make the pilgrimage to 
Rome ; and, in accordance with that conditioii, she was then 
on her way thither. Pantulus was aware of her resolution, 
and he had made every requisite preparation to facilitate the 
object of her toilsome journey. But so struck was he with 
the sanctity of the maiden, the devotion of her virginal body- 
guard, and^ perhaps, with her transcendent beauty, that he 



GERMANY. 31 

v^etermiiied on aecompanying" them himself. Collecting- to- 
gether a sufficient escort of the most sedate and sincere 
Christians in his legions, he preceded them in this extraor- 
dinary pilgrimage, clearing their road of all difficulties, and 
making their path over the rugged mountains as smooth as 
possible. In this guise they passed through Switzerland; 
and crossing the Mons Jovis, now known as the Great St. 
Bernard, after much toil, and many privations, they arrived 
safe in Rome. For this act the Prsetor Pantulus was ca- 
nonized on his death ; and to this day he has an altar to his 
honour in the Church of St. Ursula at Cologne. 

It need not be said that they were warmly welcomed by 
the Pope ; or that tiiey excited the wonder and curiosity of 
the Roman people. So much, indeed, were they incom- 
moded by the latter, that, after the holy father, Pontianus, 
who then sat in St. Peter's chair, had rebaptized, or rather 
confirmed them, and they had seen all the sacred objects 
which the eternal city then contained, at his urgent entreaty, 
they left that scene of profligacy and corruption, and wended 
their way over the mountains back again to the Rhine. The 
old chronicle from which this tale is taken adds, that Pon- 
tianus himself, as a mark of honour and reverence to the 
maidens, and to the power which conducted them such a dis- 
tance, deposited his spiritual dignity in the hands of his suc- 
cessor, and, accompanied by hundreds of the higher clergy, 
followed the virgin train afoot to the place of their re-em- 
barkation, at Basle. 

Once more these fair wanderers were on the v;aters of the 
Rhine; and once more the shores were made glad wath their 
celestial melody. Thousands upon thousands of the inha- 
bitants of both sides of the river followed them on foot, keep- 
ing pace with the stately barks which bore them slowly on- 
w^ard adown the glittering stream : that mighty river itself, 
in full flood, is the best similitude to which to liken the 
countless and still-increasing crowds which accompanied 



32 GERMANY. 

their course. She landed in Mayence ; and was there re- 
ceived by her ardent bridegroom, Conan. 

Conan was a heathen : the light of Christianity had not 
then reached the depths of the Hercynian Forest, or pene- 
trated to his father's kingdom ; but he was also an ingenuous 
youth, of amiable disposition, and possessed of all the virtues 
of Paganism, together with a greatness of soul peculiar to 
those called barbarians at that period. A happy man was he 
to meet his young and beautiful bride, radiant with the light 
of heaven, and redolent of sanctity ; and happy was he, too, 
to see her surrounded by such a train of youth, and loveli- 
ness, and virtue ; but, when he saw the old Pope and his 
clergy, their silver locks floating adown their shoulders, the 
fervour of piety overcoming- the helplessness of age, and 
decrepitude, and wasting toil, his noble heart was deeply 
touched. " Surely," thought he, " it must be a religion of 
truth, which has such votaries." He communicated his feel- 
ings to his bride ; and in a few days became, as she was, a 
labourer in the propagation of Christianity. " It is probable," 
quoth the quaint old Chronicle from which this tale is taken, 
" that the self-same angel of the Lord, who appeared to Vio- 
netus in his dream, had also prepared the heart of this young 
prince for the reception of the truth," After spending the 
honeymoon in the delicious neighbourhood of Mayence, they 
descended the river to Cologne. 

At this time, the first movements of that terrific mass of 
Scandinavian barbarians, known by the name of Huns, were 
beginning to be felt at the extremities of the Roman empire. 
Cologne is said to have been treated by them with great 
severity. The Chronicle, whence this legend is derived, 
states, that shortly after the landing of Ursula, her spouse, 
and their train of virgins and ecclesiastics, the Huns made 
themselves masters of the city. Among the first to meet 
death at the hands of these ruthless monsters were the 
maiden-followers of Ursula. Life to them was nothing, 



GERMANY. 33 

when compared with the loss of their honour ; and the bar- 
barians, flushed with conquest and drunk with blood, were 
not men who willingly allowed any plea to bar their plea- 
sures. Those hapless ladies, for resisting defilement, were 
martyred in all imaginable manner of ways — mutilated, cru- 
cified, slaughtered — without compunction and without mercy. 
Of all that crowd of beauty, and virtue, and grace, and devo- 
tion, there was not one left alive at the end of three days.^ 
The venerable Pope and his clergy were also despatched by 
these cruel savages. Ursula and her husband alone were 
left alive to the last, only that the scene of blood might be 
closed and crowned with their martyrdom. When all the 
others were disposed of, they too were slain. They suffered 
unheard-of torments ; but they defeated their brutal tormen- 
tors by the fortitude and even joy with which they welcomed 
their fearful fate. 

A picture in the Church of St. Ursula represents the man- 
ner of their death. Conan is seen perforated with spears, 
and swords, and arrows ; his eyes are fixed on his beloved 
bride alone ; whether to find fortitude in her example, or to 
strengthen himself by her patient sufferings in his new faith, 
cannot be discovered ; but still they appear filled with more 
of love than of devotion ; which seems not unnatural, even 
in that awful moment, when it is considered in connexion 
with her superhuman beauty. She, more in love with hea- 
ven than with aught of this earth, expresses only the beatific 
hope of the future in her mild glances; and looks more 
anxious to console her husband under his torments, and ex- 
cite him, by word and deed, to bear up against his cruel fate, 
and die in the belief of Christ, than touched with any thing 
like human sympathy. It is a heart-thrilling composition; 
yet it is a pleasing one withal. 

In a chapel, near the choir, stands the tomb of St. Ursula. 
She lies extended, with her hands folded across her breast, 
on the black slab which covers it ; at her feet is a white 



34 GERMANY. 

marble dove, the emblem of her own innocence and spotless 
purity. This dove is said to rest on the spot where her bones 
are interred. 
To have seen all in this church was worth some trouble. 

Yours, &c. 



BELGIUM. 



LETTER LI. 

Brussels. 

Belgian railroads; their advantages; regulations— Liege — Women's 
work — Manufactures — Tunnels — Monks — Brussels — ^Hotel de Belle- 
vue — Valet de Place — American minister, Mr. Clemson — American 
politics — Arrival of King Leopold ; his family — Cathedral of St. 
Gudule — Fete of the Madonna — Plenary indulgences — Great prepa- 
parations — Confusion — Carved pulpit — Monuments — Miraculous 
wafers. 

A GOOD system of railroads has been adopted by the go- 
vernment of Belgium ; the route is completed from Cologne 
to Ostend, with branches from Mechlin, or Malines, as the 
natives call it, to Antwerp and Brussels ; other routes are in 
progress of completion. By the present conveyances, pas- 
sengers leave Cologne early in the morning and arrive in 
Ostend to sleep, and be in readiness to take the steam- vessel 
next morning to Dover. Till very lately, this route occupied 
three days. The facility thus given of getting on, tempts 
many to cross the Channel for the tour of the Rhine ; Bel- 
gium by this road has secured most of the travellers from 
England to Germany and even to Switzerland, and probably 
will come in for much of the carrying-trade, which till now 
found its way round by Holland and up the Rhine by a 
tedious ascending navigation. The number of passengers 
was very great as far as Mechlin, where many stopped to 
take the trains for this miniature of Paris, or for Antwerp. 
This facility of travelling induces others, as it did me, to 

VOL. II. 4 



38 BELGIUM. 

omit stopping at Aix-la-Chapelle, Liege, &c., and will pro- 
bably prevent me from visiting Ghent and Bruges. 

The distance to Brussels by rail is two hundred and twenty 
miles, performed at a pace of about eighteen miles in the 
hour, with arrangements which appear to secure the passen- 
gers from any imminent danger. The whole road is under 
the control of government ; this produces some difference in 
the management from any I have seen. A small charge is 
made for luggage, which is weighed before starting, a number 
placed on each package, and a receipt is given for its delivery ; 
this charge, added to your own ticket, makes the whole much 
less than for similar distances in England, or with us ; in the 
luxurious first-class carriages, with but six in a room, and a 
centre-table for your books, the charge is but two cents a mile. 
The military are employed on all parts of the line ; soldiers 
are on duty at all the stations, and all the officials are in 
uniform. The guards and engineers wear green, and carry 
a horn, slung Robin Hood-fashion over the shoulder. The 
horn is musically sounded by the man at the head of the train, 
and is answered in the same notes, blown by his fellow in 
the rear — a much more agreeable intimation than a shrill 
whistle or a bell ; it is always clearly and distinctly heard. 
The guard collects the tickets while the train is in motion, 
as he scrambles from one post-coach to another, risking his 
life where there is no step or contrivance for his support. 
One fell lately and was ground to atoms. 

Liege, as we passed it, gave strong evidences of prosperous 
manufactures ; rail-wagons full of coal were in the course of 
unloading ; women shovelling the coal into carts with an air 
that showed it was their common occupation. Females were 
also employed in making brick?. The country through which 
we passed is well-cultivated ; very fine crops of winter-grain 
were nearly ready for the sickle. The scenery was strikingly 
like that of America. A long period of peace has shown 
these people the way to put money in their pockets ; their 
manufactories are so prosperous as to be looked at with 



BELGIUM. 39 

jealousy by the English, with whom they compete even in 
cutlery and woolen-cloths. Numerous and long tunnels 
through the hardest rock, are passed before arriving at Liege; 
the first-class coaches, as in England, are furnished with 
lamps ingeniously placed in a glass globe, in the centre of the 
top, so that the smoke escapes ; the traveller is thus never 
left in the dark. 

We had in our coach (I use this word because the old Eng- 
lish post-coach has served for the model of the first-class rail- 
cars), a couple of monks from the Abbey of Park near Lou- 
vain, which place we passed. These men were dressed in 
an ancient costume, with silver buttons and cocked hats. 
When they left us, one of my neighbours informed me, they 
live as well as monks of old times; have large fish-ponds and 
other luxuries for which their residences were formerly so 
famous. One of them had a pampered look of obesity. I 
should have remarked, that another visile or examination of 
the luggage, took place at Verviers, where confusion again 
reigned supreme. 

Arrived at Brussels, there was the usual bustle of procuring 
luggage ; while getting conveyances at the station, detained 
us a long time ; I am, however, at length established at the 
long-celebrated Hotel de Bellevue, near the Park and the 
Palace of the King. An excellent valet de place, speaking 
French and a few words of English, is ready to supply the 
deficiencies of the waiters of this extravagant hotel ; they 
seem to think every attention unnecessary, and they are not 
civil withal. The American minister, Mr. Clemson, with 
whom T had the pleasure of an acquaintance, resides near at 
hand, and has been particularly kind and civil, pointing out 
the objects which should be visited, and vise-ing my passport 
for the Low Countries, should I determine to go to Amster- 
dam on my arrival at Antwerp. We had a good dish of 
American politics to talk over, a steamer having lately brought 
him despatches from Washington, which give him reason to 
believe the new President will retain him as ambassador — 



40 BELGIUM. 

while he learns that several charges and ministers are recal- 
led. Mr. Clemson is a fine, portly gentleman, and popular 
here in the first circles. While I am writing, the King 
has arrived from his recent visit to London, and has just pas- 
sed my windows, surrounded and followed by his soldiers, and 
cheered with vivas : Leopold is now an elderly gentleman, 
contrasting strongly with my recollections of his youthful 
portrait, when he was the consort of the Princess Charlotte. 
He came very near occupying the position now held by Prince 
Albert ; again married, to a daughter of Louis Philippe, he 
has a family of children to succeed him, should the Belgians 
choose to perpetuate his dynasty. This setting up of foreign- 
ers for kings and rulers would scarcely suit our American 
notions. He is a Protestant, reigning over a population the 
greater portion of whom are of the Catholic religion, as will 
be evident to you when I tell you what I have seen at the 
Cathedral of St. Gudule, an ancient Gothic church, in which 
the first chapter of the Order of the Golden Fleece was held 
by Philip the Good, of Burgundy, in 1435, and the eighteenth 
by the Emperor Charles V., in 1516. 

Great preparations are in progress for the Fete of the 
Madonna, to-morrow (Sunday). A printed advertisement, 
just inside of the arched doorway, announces, that "plenary 
indulgences will be granted on this occasion of four hundred 
days to those who attend piously the Grand Mass ; — four hun- 
dred to those who accompany the procession ; — four hundred 
to those who assist at vespers ; — two hundred to those who 
during eight days attend the Grand Mass ; — seven years and 
two hundred and eighty days to those who during the year 
assist at the Grand Mass in honour of the Sacrament, to 
those who receive the benediction, and who make the tour 
of the procession." Here is indulgence enough to satisfy the 
most craving. 

The church is in course of preparation for the grand fete ; 
the Virgin Mary has on a new blue-silk gown trimmed with 
Brussels lace, new flowers and tinsel in her hands, ready to 
be carried in procession round the town to-morrow in presence 



BELGIUM. ' 41 

of thousands from Antwerp and other cities, as well as the 
collected mob of this town, of some hundred and fifty thou- 
sand inhabitants. The church is cleaned, and set out with 
lemon and orange-trees in tubs ; numerous candles, elegant 
blue and red flags, &c., &c , &c , while workmen are busily 
employed with hammers and nails, fixing up candle-stands, 
rostrums, paintings, and other paraphernalia. The noise is 
deafening, notwithstanding which, the priests are performing 
mass, and the chorus is chaunting — amidst these notes of 
preparation. An enormous lemon-tree was set down heavily 
at my feet, when the box broke open and distributed the dirt 
around ; hammers soon brought it together again with a noise 
that reverberates through the nave and choir. This is a faint 
picture of the confusion which reigns around. 

In this church is a fine specimen of a usual ornament of the 
house of prayer in these countries ; an enormous pulpit of 
carved wood, the master-piece of Vanbruggen, stands out in 
the nave : the carvings are in bold relief, representing Adam 
and Eve, driven out of Paradise ; peacocks strut at full length ; 
monkeys are disporting among fig and other fruit-trees ; while 
birds and animals of forms never seen in nature, are perched 
in every possible attitude, to witness the angel driving out 
our first parents* with a besom. Overhead, the Virgin Mary 
holds the infant Saviour, whom she is assisting to thrust the 
extremity of the cross into the serpent's head ! 

The brass and marble monuments are numerous — to Dukes 
of Brabant — to bishops and sainted or wealthy individuals. A 
martyr of the Revolution of 1830, has a fine marble tomb with 
his statue at full length, dressed in the costume in which he 
was shot, wearing a blouse and holding a pistol. The artist 
has done the best he could with this novel statuary apparel ; 

* Poor Eve holds an enormous apple in her hand, as if she was re- 
solved, since she was to be turned out of Paradise, to have another good 
eat. A great boa-constrictor, as thick as the trunks upon which he ih 
entwined, ostriches, eagles, and squirrels, fill up this curious specimen 

of the fine arts. 

4* 



42 BELGIUM. 

poor Count Merode may be gazed on by distant posterity who 
never heard of this tempest in a tea-pot — this modern revolu- 
tion which gave the Prince of Orange his walking-ticket. 
The miraculous wafers here preserved, from which jets of 
blood are said to have burst forth when a sacrilegious Jew 
who had stolen them, stuck his knife into their fragile surfaces, 
1 did not ask to see. The Virgin is to make a grand excur- 
sion through the town, but I leave you to suppose such a 
scene after the preparations I have described. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTERLII. 

Brussels. 

Paris in miniature — Cleanly — Octroi-duty — The park — Wounded trees 
— Jardin des Plantes — Fine arts — Motel de Ville — Grande Place — 
Maison du Roi — Duchess of Richmond's ball — The AUe Verte — 
Antwerp — The pet of Napoleon — Railroad routes — Dukeof'Alva — 
Revolution of 1830 — The Exchange — Canes — Pictures — Rubens — 
Vandyck — House of Rubens — A humble picture dealer — Descent 
from the cross — Private gallery of Mademoiselle Herry — The silk 
manufacturers' gallery. 

This is a very clean city; it is called Paris in miniature 
with truth, excepting in the article of filth; none of the disgust- 
ing scenes witnessed in the French capital are here met with ; 
the upper portion of the town is much elevated above the old ; 
it has boulevards, and cafes a la Paris, as well as an octroi 
duty at its iron gates ; I have been repeatedly stopped and 
had my carriage-door civilly opened by soldiers to see if I 
was smuggling food or wine ; you take no notice of this 
visits — the coachman stops as a matter of course, and the door 



BELGIUM. 43 

is opened and shut without interrupting" conversation with a 
friend ; coachee hears the door close and drives on. 

I have been sauntering" in the beautiful Park full of fine 
old trees and some good statuary ; seats invite to lounge, but 
there is not a dense population, as in Paris, to give animation 
at all hours of the day to such scenes. The poor trees of 
some of the alleys suffered wofully in the revolutionary strug- 
gle ; many are now splintered and bandaged with tar cata- 
plasms spread on coarse canvass ; others have recovered, but 
have scars left in their bark. Soldiers, and an old woman 
knitting while two dirty children played at her apron -string, 
were the only human beings to enjoy the dense shade of the 
old forest-like park. From here I took a walk down hill to 
the Jardin des Plantes, a place of considerable beauty, with a 
fine green-house and beautiful flowers ; the garden is in a 
ravine formerly useless, where good effects have been pro- 
duced by planting the American arbor vita? on the steep 
slopes. The gardener is a great admirer of American plants, 
asking me many questions respecting our evergreens ; the 
Rhododendron was growing luxuriantly in large beds under 
his care. 

A taste for the fine arts seems to have been infused among 
the inhabitants, several of whom have private galleries ; of 
these I visited that of Count D'Aremberg, where there is a 
small collection of good pictures, some statuary, numerous 
Etruscan curiosities, and a fine library, luxuriously furnished. 
His custode might exhibit himself as the Belgian giant. 

The Hotel de Ville, one of those old municipal halls pecu- 
liar to the Netherlands, is among the most striking objects in 
Belgium. It stands on one side of a hollow square, in the 
Grande Place, with a tower of open gothic work three hun- 
dred and sixty-four feet high, with quaint successions of old 
stories in a style perfectly novel to my eye, but of great 
beauty. 

This Grande Place is one of the most remarkable for its 
surrounding architecture I have yet encountered. The houses 



44 BELGIUM. 

were built by the Spaniards during their occupation of Bra- 
bant ; porches, balconies, twisted pillars, fluted pilasters, 
balls, scrolls, and armorial shields, embelli&hed every where 
by the gilders and carvers' cunning arts, uprear to an amazing 
height their fantastic forms. The whole family of gables in all 
their luxuriant branches flourish here ; outvying each other in 
picturesque gaudiness and modern paint ; they seem only to 
be unanimous in one object, that of rivalling the broad sedate 
magnificence of tlie ancient town hall ; in the latter I visited 
the grand room in which Charles V. abdicated his throne in 
1555; it is now undergoing repairs; the pictures are removed 
to be cleaned or repainted, and little that belongs to the ori- 
ginal remains but the walls and ceiling. 

Opposite the town hall is the Maison du Roi, once the 
residence of the cruel Alva, and equally remarkable as the 
scene of the Duchess of Richmond's ball before the battle of 
Waterloo, of which so much has been said and written. The 
Place is graced by an old fountain, and market women are 
sitting round their baskets vending fruit and, vegetables, 
dressed in old and curious garments. No description can do 
justice to this very remarkable square. 

With regard to the Duchess of Richmond's Ball let me 
refer you to the 101st number of the London Quarterly Re- 
view, vi'bere the particulars of this celebrated scene are given 
lor the first time in correct detail. — 

" It may well be, and we believe it, that no other man living 
could have retained the imperturbable coolness which the 
Duke exhibited during the 15th at Brussels, and still less 
could have put off" to the last the moment of general alarm 
by going to a ball after having given his orders. Nothing 
was more likely at the moment to generate the idea of a sur- 
prise than the circumstance of this ball, from which so many 
dancers adjourned to that supper of Hamlet, not where men 
eat, but where they are eaten. The delusion, however* 
fades before the facts of the General Orders to be found in 



BELGIUM. 45 

Colonel Gurwood's volume, and is not now worth further 
notice for purposes of refutation. The details of the case, 
however, are but partially known, and they are worth re- 
cording. The late Duke of Richmond, an attached and 
intimate friend of the Commander-in-chief, was at Brussels. 
He was himself a general officer ; had one son, the present 
Duke of Richmond, on the staff of the Prince of Orange, one 
on that of the Duke, and another in the Blues, and was at 
the battle of Waterloo, but not in any military capacity.* 
The brother of the Duchess, the late (and last) Duke of Gor- 
don, was colonel of the 92d or Gordon Highlanders, which, 
with the 42d and 79th Highland regiments, formed part of 
the reserve corps stationed at Brussels. The Duchess had 
issued invitations for a ball for the 15th. Among other pre- 
parations for the evening she had engaged the attendance of 
some of the non-commissioned officers and privates of her 
brother's regiment and the 42d, wishing to show her conti- 
nental guests the real Highland dances in perfection. When 
the news of the French advance reached head-quarters, it 
became matter of discussion whether or not the ball should 
be allowed to proceed. The deliberate judgment of the 
Duke decided that it should. There were reasons good for 
this decision. It is sufficient on this head to say that the 
state of public feeling in the Netherlands generally, and in 
Brussels in particular, was more than questionable. It was 
a thing desirable in itself to postpone to the last the in- 
evitable moment of alarm — to shorten so far as possible that 
critical interval which must occur between the acting of a 
dreadful thing and the first motion, between the public an- 
nouncement of actual hostilities and their decision in the 
field. Every necessary order had been issued ; and such 

* The Duke of Richmond was seen riding about the field, sometimes 
in situations of imminent danger, in plain clothes, with his groom be- 
hind him, exactly as if taking an airing in Hyde Park. His Grace's 
appearance at one remarkable moment is picturesquely enough de- 
scribed by Captain Siborne. 



46 BELGIUM. 

was that state of preparation and arrangement which wise 
men have since questioned and criticised, that this operation 
had been the work of minutes, and before the festal lamps 
were lighted the fiery cross was on its way through the can- 
tonments. The general officers then in Brussels had their 
instructions to attend and to drop off singly and without eclat 
and join their divisions on the march. The Duke himself 
remained later, occupied the place of honour at the supper, 
and returned thanks for the toast to himself and the allied 
army, which was proposed by General Alava. At about 
eleven a despatch arrived from the Prince of Orange, shortly 
after reading which, the Duke retired, saluting the company 
graciously. On that countenance, cheerful and disengaged 
as usual, none could read the workings of the calm but busy 
mind beneath. The state of things, however, most awful to 
those who could least distinctly be informed of it, had par- 
tially transpired, and the fete had assumed that complexion 
which has been perpetuated on the canvass of Byron. The 
bugle had sounded before the orchestra had ceased. Before 
the evening of the following day some of the Duchess's 
kilted corps de ballet were stretched in the rye of Quatre 
Bras, never to dance again. Rough transitions these— 
moralists may sigh — poets may sing — but they are the Rem- 
brandt lights and shadows of the existence of the soldier, 
whose philosophy must always be that of Wolfe's favourite 
song — 

" Why, soldiers, why. 
Should we be melancholy then, 
Whose trade it is to die V 

In this instance they were results of a cool self possession 
and control, for a parallel instance of which biography may 
be searched in vain." 

The lines of Byron referred to by the writer, are in Childe 
Harold, canto third ; though well known to many readers, I 



BELGIUM. 47 

cannot resist the temptation of quoting them to you from the 
spot : — 

There was a sound of revelry by night, 
And Belgium's capital had gather'd then 
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright 
The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men ; 
A thousand hearts beat happily ; and when 
Music arose with its voluptuous swell. 
Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again, 
And all went merry as a marriage-bell ; 
But hush ! hark ! a deep sound strikes like a rising-knell ! 

Did ye not hear it 1 — No ; 'twas but the wind, 
Or the car rattling o'er the stony street ; 
On with the dance ! let joy be unconfined ; 
No sleep till morn when youth and pleasure meet, 
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet — 
But, hark ! — that heavy sound breaks in once more 
As if the clouds its echo would repeat ; 
And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before ! 
Arm ! arm ! — it is — it is — the cannon's opening roar ! 

Within a window'd niche of that high wall 
Sate Brunswick's fated chieftain ; he did hear 
That sound the first amidst the festival. 
And caught its tone with death's prophetic ear ; 
And when they smiled because he deem'd it near. 
His heart more truly knew that peal too well 
Which stretch'd his father on a bloody bier, 
And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell. 
He rush'd into the field, and, foremost fighting, fell. 

Ah ! then and there was hurrying to and fro, 
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress, 
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago, 
Blush'd at the praise of their own loveliness ; 



48 BELGIUM. 

And there were sudden partings, such as press 
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs 
Which ne'er might be repeated ; who could guess 
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes, 
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise 1 

And there was mounting in hot haste : the steed, 
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car, 
When pouring forward with impetuous speed, 
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war ; 
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar ; 
And near, the beat of the alarming drum. 
Roused up the soldier ere the morning star ; 
While throng'd the citizens with terror dumb, 
Or whispering, with white lips—" The foe ! They come ! 
they come I" 

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, 
Dewy with nature's tear-drops, as they pass. 
Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves. 
Over the unreturning brave, — alas ! 
Ere evening to be trodden like the grass 
Which now beneath them, but above shall grow 
In its next verdure, when this iiery mass 
Of living valour, rolling on the foe. 
And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low. 

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life. 
Last eve in beauty's circle proudly gay. 
The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife, 
The morn the marshalling in arms, — the day 
Battle's magnificently-stern array ! 
The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent, 
The earth is covered thick with other clay. 
Which her own clay shall cover, heap'd and pent, 
Rider and horse, — friend, foe, — in one red burial blent ! 



BELGIUM. 49 

Several visits to the Allee Verte, a fashionable green drive 
somewhat like a long- well-planted park, visits to other 
churches, &c., of no particular note, closed my sojourn in 
Brussels. A party for the field of Waterloo, of which I was 
to have been one, was spoiled by a heavy rain, much to my 
regret, and I left for my promised pilgrimage to Antwerp and 
its pictures. 

Antwerp, 

This formerly commercial city, the pet of Napoleon, who 
fortified it at an enormous outlay, is now reached by railroad 
in a couple of hours from Brussels ; this route runs directly 
across the main Belgium road. A road is now in progress 
from Antwerp to Ostend ; when the whole of the projected 
routes are completed, Belgium will have one of the best 
systems of rail -roads in Europe, and will enjoy much of the 
carrying trade of the continent. 

In the days of Charles V., and in those of Napoleon, this 
old city enjoyed the greatest commercial prosperity. The 
cruel Alva, by establishing the Inquisition and other acts of 
wickedness, drove the Flemish artificers to England ; they 
introduced the silk manufacture into Great Britain in the 
reign of Elizabeth, as the Liege refugees did the woollen at 
a later period. Sieges at several periods greatly injured its 
commercial prosperity ; from its latter importance as a port 
it was rapidly recovering when the revolution of 1830 anni- 
hilated its most profitable commerce with the Dutch colonies, 
its richest merchants having emigrated to Amsterdam and 
Rotterdam. Having occasion to see a banker, I repaired at 
once to the Exchange, at change hour ; there was a respecta- 
ble show of merchants chattering and making bargains, in an 
old Moorish-looking quadrangle with a corridor all round, 
surmounted by an odd second story ; a guard stood at the iron 
gate to keep improper persons out, to take the merchants' 
canes as they passed in, or to call any one required. Mr. 

VOL. II. 5 



50 BELGIUM. 

Meyer gave me my desired information, and while we were 
conversing, at a signal from a bell, the whole commercial 
representatives of Antwerp retired in good order. 

This city enjoys considerable reputation for its pictures, 
several of the most celebrated productions of Rubens, Van- 
dyke, Teniers, &c., having remained behind after its commer- 
cial prosperity has deserted it. The house of Rubens is still 
shown, but has lately undergone such material alterations as 
almost to destroy its identity. His statue on the quay is 
colossal ; his memory seems to be cherished by the inhabitants 
in a remarkable degree. Very many amateurs live in Ant- 
werp ; even my valet de place was a picture-dealer, and 
talked learnedly of the fine arts ; he had a little shop of arti- 
cles of virtii, and seemed to wonder how I could resist the 
purchase of a little " gem" by, or after Cuyp ; his collection 
of coins and curiosities from Waterloo? for those who, like 
myself, did not visit the field, must prove lucrative ; hanging 
about the hotels he picks up English tourists of no great 
knowledge of the fine arts, and makes it convenient in going 
to the cathedral to pass his little shop. His collection of old 
china would tempt some Americans you and I are acquainted 
with. 

I have now seen so many Catholic cathedrals that I have 
learned what to expect ; but here I was to see at Notre Dame 
the masterpiece of Rubens — the Descent from the Cross ^ and 
other celebrated paintings on which I was expected to expend 
a large amount of enthusiasm. This great picture is pre- 
served under a pair of doors, which, on being opened by the 
church guide, display two other of Rubens's productions. 
The French carried the Descent from the Cross to Paris, and 
judiciously cleaned it, so that the criticisms of Sir Joshua 
Reynolds respecting its condition, must now be read with 
some allowance. 

A very neat, small, but select private gallery, containing 
some pictures by the old masters, and many by Flemish artists, 
belonging to Mademoiselle Herry, is kindly exhibited to 



BELGIUM. 51 

respectable strangers, and well rewards a morning visit. A 
Scotch silk manufacturer, who married the daughter of his 
wealthy predecessor in the business, has also a clever picture- 
gallery, which he shows to his customers. He, or rather she, 
owns one picture by Rubens, for which five thousand pounds 
sterling has been refused. The canny Scot knows that these 
productions are rising in value faster than the interest would 
accumulate. Many of the best pictures still remaining in 
Antwerp, are at the museumj a visit to which must not be 
omitted^ 

Yours, &c. 



ENGLAND. 



LETTER LIII. 

Ostend. 

Reasons for haste — Rubens — Depart for Ostend — Rail-road companions 
— The commerce of Antwerp— Contrast with Philadelphia — Bruges 
and Ghent not seen — Difficulty of procuring information — Annoj'- 
ance — Ostend — The quay— Bathing time — Machines — A good sea 
bath — The bathers — Kneeling in the street — Government steamer — 
Old companions — Sea-sickness — Dover — Custom-house — Smuggling 
cameos — Rail to London. 

It was with extreme reluctance I felt obliged, by limited 
time and by anxiety to receive letters from America, to omit 
an eighteen hours' steamboat trip to Rotterdam, and thence 
to the Hague, &c. ; but one cannot see every thing, and 
several engagements in England were staring at me in my 
tablets, particularly one to be present at Eton College on 
election Monday. I therefore paid my fourth visit to the great 
picture of Rubens, took another half day for Mademoiselle 
Kerry's and the museum picture-gallery, bade adieu to my co- 
loquial friend the silk-dealer and picture-lover, and deposited 
myself for the last time in a luxurious continental rail-road 
post-coach, for Ostend. At Mechlin we changed, and joined 
the numerous Cologne passengers, most of whom were travel- 
ling in the second or third class cars. 

At Bruges we were joined by a family of very respectable 
Belgians, who were going to Ostend to enjoy the bathing- 
season ; the husband smoked, as all husbands and brothers do 
here, to the very last moment, and then tumbled in and sat 



56 ENGLAND. 

down on his wife's work-basket, in which, direful to relate, 
was stowed her now lost — evaporated — veritable eau de Co- 
logne. She treated it as a capital joke ; their good humour, 
heightened by polish of manners and agreeable conversation, 
softened my regret at not having taken the time and trouble 
to see Bruges and Ghent. I had already omitted Aix-la-Cha- 
pelle, where is the tomb of Charlemagne and very curious 
relics ; but in a tour such as I am making, one has to select 
exemplars of the no^rel objects he wishes to remember, and 
visit the best. 



London. 

The difficulty of ascertaining the proper mode of proceed- 
ing, which I encountered in England, is much enhanced on 
the Continent. I had used every endeavour, both in Antwerp 
and Brussels, to ascertain at what time steam vessels left 
Ostend for Dover, but nobody could tell me, except that on 
Wednesdays the Queen Mary, a fine vessel, ran with uni- 
formity, and there was a general impression that a government 
vessel left every day at eight o'' clock, so that passengers got 
comfortably to London the same night. This was fully con- 
firmed by one ©f the advertisements of the " Mary," which 
positively asserted the eight o'clock hour. I therefore felt no 
doubt, but had it also confirmed by the lazy garcons at the 
poor best hotel at Ostend, ordered myself called at seven, 
breakfasted, and hurried on board. Though the hotel was 
within a stone's throw of the steam-vessel, nobody in the 
house knew the fact, that, owing to the state of the tide, she 
would not sail till ten ! The hatches were not open, and 
the hands were gruff" and sullen. Many other passengers 
were similarly annoyed. We swallowed our anger as well 
as we could, deposited our luggage under a tarpaulin, and 
set out for a couple of hours' saunter through Ostend ; glad 
we were of the delay, for we stumbled upon the magnificent 



ENGLAND. 57 

quay and fortified breastwork, used as a promenade by the 
townspeople, and by the numerous English, French, and Bel- 
gians, who resort here during the bathing season. They live 
en pension, in various small houses, sheltered from storms 
behind the ramparts. It was just high bathing-time ; a dozen 
fellows assailed us and quarrelled for our custom, before we 
knew what want of ours they wished so eagerly to supply; it 
turned out they were foragers for customers for the bathing 
machines, scattered plentifully on the sand ; the tide served, 
the day was warm ; after settling six disputes as to who was 
the first to catch me, I accepted the guidance of a good-look- 
ing sailor, who conducted me to a bathing-house on wheels. 
A woman of the broadest shoulders, nose, and feet, asked ten 
cents, cheated me out of twelve more in changing Belgian 
to English money, gave me pantaloons and two good towels, 
and I mounted a pair of steps to a clean room with a window 
on each side, seats, and a looking-glass. Immediately a horse 
was attached, the rider gave two smart raps on the door, 
which I took as an intimation to sit down or be overturned, 
and away we went. The horse and rider left me in the surf. 

The bathers breakfast and lounge at a very good cafe on 
the walls, where fine views of the sea and sailing vessels 
induce them to pass their time much in the lazy fashion you 
are wont to indulge in at Cape May and the Branch. A 
little detour through the town brought us in contact with a 
crowd kneeling in the street in a long line extending from a 
church door ; the building was full, and some Catholic cere- 
mony was in progress, the meaning of which no one v^as 
sufficiently on his feet to inform us. Translate the word had 
into bathing, and then you will understand the following 
advertisement, on the sea-ramparts, which ran thus : " Bad 
plaets vor de vrouwen." 

Once more on board the government steamer, I found 
some companions I had left in Geneva, who were preparing 
for a turbulent passage and sea-sickness. The morning had 
been remarkably fine, but Boreas was assembling his Channel 



58 ENGLAND. 

clouds to head us, making' London to-night almost out of the 
question. The vessel is staunch, a picked crew, though the 
captain is eighty years of age ! We were soon in the trough 
of a heavy sea ; all the passengers but myself were pros- 
trated by sickness. 

Dover was reached just in time and not a minute to spare, 
to get to the last railroad train for London. Beset by com- 
missionnaires, and hurried through the custom-house, where 
every facility was given, we felt very fortunate in escaping 
the notorious exactions of the Ship Inn, though our conti- 
nental curiosities were somewhat bruised. A gentleman 
from Rome, smuggling some beautiful shell eameos, dropped 
one in the struggle against time ; it was trodden under foot 
and smashed, but escaped the duty ! He paid four guineas 
on a roll of pictures, which were charged^ as some people 
value such things, by the square foot. Again in London, I 
shall be able to be less egotistical, and to talk English to yoii. 

YourSj &c. 



LETTER LIT. 



Lon(!on. 



The Queen and her husband — Various opinions respeeting their happi- 
ness — Is she deranged ? — A crazy dynasty — Its result — No symptoms 
of insanity apparent — Natural wish to travel — Tlie Queen the 
stronger lover of the two — She rules — Her temper^— Her apron 
strings— Jonathan's opinion — Current stories — Anecdote at Taymouth 
Castle — The confoiinded white ponies — Prince Albert's position — 
His occupations, tastes, and amusements — Pheasants and dogs — Will 
not be king — The Qiaeen patronises foreign artists — William and 
Mary Howitt — Their residence — How engaged — Party there. 

One of the things much talked about here is the state of 

^ affairs between the Queen and her husband. I have often 

been amused with the answers of her subjects, when ques- 



ENGLAND. 59 

tioned as to the condition of the royal manage. Some pro- 
fess to believe the "royal consort" a happy and a lucky man; 
some think his duties and annoyances very heavy, and many 
envy him ; while others, but they are few, have concluded 
that her frequent journeys on the continent and at home, 
indicate that the mental disease of George the Third has 
attacked her. This last, of course, is a most interesting 
question at home, and has its bearings abroad. If the Queen 
inherits insanity, then it follows that her children may be 
insane sooner or later ; the next sequitur is, that England is 
to be governed by a crazy race for an indefinite period, the 
reigning sovereign liable to an attack at any moment, and 
being crazy not being incompatible with the station of queen 
or king, however it may, when time is afforded to prove it, 
prevent them from reigning during the period of attack : a 
crazy queen will bring Prince x\lbert forward to have a say 
in the government ; he will be regent in case of the death 
of Victoria. Thus we may see Great Britain with a crazed 
head, and a foreigner with the veto power. 

From all I could learn in the best educated circles, and 
from a ^evj with whom I mingled, who have access to the 
court, I am inclined to think the fear of her insanity has 
been father to the thought, and that no symptoms to justify 
such a fear have yet become apparent to the closest observers. 
What more natural for a young woman than to wish to travel "J 
Do not her subjects do so 1 If her subjects are fond of tra- 
velling, and do travel at a great expense on the continent, 
and come back and talk to her of places they have seen, is 
there any thing more likely to occur than that she should 
wish to see also, especially when she journeys with so much 
eclat 1 The times have changed ; — this is a time for travel- 
ling, and why should not the Queen of England be in the 
fashion ? She is, however, in this case, following, not lead- 
ing it. I would not have you credit a paragraph that has 
got into the papers on the subject of her mental aberration^ 



&" 



Of 



60 ENGLAND. 

though it must be confessed the subject has talkers here as 
well as with you. 

As to the love of the Queen and the Prince ! this, too, is 
talked over in a thousand ways by the gossipers, who have 
pretty generally come to the conclusion that they are as 
much together as other married people, if not a little more ; 
that the lady loves a little the stronger of the two, or at 
least shows her love the most ; that she rules ; that she is 
sometimes provoking, and sometimes a little sulky and high- 
tempered, and somewhat jealous ; the last showing itself by 
watchful movements to prevent his escape from her apron- 
string — if, indeed, queens wear aprons with strings ; — if they 
do, as she is supposed to, the said strings are made of the 
same materials as those of other wives, and they seem to be 
tied a little tighter. This causes so?ne to pity the Prince, 
while the majority unite with Brother Jonathan in thinking 
he has got a nice sit-w-ation enough. It is the custom in 
these modern days for the husband to be the head of the 
house ; — when a husband surrenders this station, and vir- 
tually submits — if he did not do so with a good grace, he 
would be still more laughed at, and would, in this case, be 
still more uncomfortable than he is said to be in his position. 
At all events, stories are current of his being, at least, a sub- 
ject. I believe I can vouch for the truth of the following 
anecdote. When the royal couple were entertained at Tay- 
mouth Castle in Scotland, so magnificently, by the Marquis 
of Breadalbane, a day of deer-stalking was to be among the 
occupations of the Prince, assisted by all the keepers to drive 
the game. More time than was expected elapsed before 
sport could be obtained, when, just as the deer were approach- 
ing, our hero took out his watch and said he must go. The 
keepers told him that in a few minutes he might shoot half- 
a-dozen bucks ; — " No" — was his reply, " it is two o'clock, 
and I must go and drive those confounded white ponies !" 
said ponies being the Queen's favourites. He missed his 
sport. 



ENGLAND. 61 

. Other equally racy anecdotes are in circulation, but as I 
have not had them from equally good authority, 1 do not give 
currency to them in print. The royal consort, it must be 
admitted, has acted prudently since he was elevated to his 
present position— one which might have made an older and 
stronger head, giddy. He has not been known to interfere 
improperly in politics or to seek place for favourites ; indeed, 
one of the complaints against him is, that he has not a single 
male personal friend among the young nobility ; that his 
shooting excursions are solitary, or in company with keepers. 
I look upon this as a happy circumstance, for a bosom friend 
might influence him to interference on one side of the politi- 
cal stage, or another, and favouritism might injluence the 
Queen, however strong her mind; we all know what con- 
trol royal favourites have exercised, for evil, over kings of 
England and other countries. The Prince finds occupation 
and amusement enough. He is put forward as patron of a 
various societies, and takes the chair on many public occa- 
sions ; makes a little speech in broken English now and then i!? 
at the presentation of a society's prize ; he is a musician and 
a composer ; cultivates and patronises concerts ; he pretends 
to scientific practice in farming, and probably possesses some 
knowledge ; much of his time is occupied in public attend- 
ance on the Queen, at drawing-rooms, and at the opera, 
theatres, &c. ; then he is a great sportsman, as every man 
must be who wants to be a gentleman of the first water in 
England. His guns would occupy even more of his atten- 
tion than they do, if he could find time for sporting. I shall 
tell you elsewhere, in my letters from the neighbourhood of 
Windsor, what royal preserves are — and how his pheasants 
and dogs are cared for. 

The Queen takes every opportunity of showing her hus- 
band respect in public, sustaining thus his dignity as far as ^ 
possible. Some attempts have been suggested to give him 
the title of king, but without success ; public opinion being 
strongly against such a measure. 

VOL. II. 6 



62 ENGLAND. 

In state matters the Queen is, of course, influenced, nay, 
led, by Sir Robert Eeel ; investigate her position, and it 
appears more that of a puppet when near at hand, than it 
does at your distance from her. One of her faults, which 
gives serious offence to many, is her patronage of foreign 
artists, whether musicians or painters. For this the Prince 
comes in for his share of vituperation ; it has been a com- 
plaint against the Brunswick family ever since the time of 
George the Second. Such a fact is hard to bear, especially 
by the artists themselves, and I do not wonder they complain. 
She is an excellent musician herself, very fond of the Italian 
opera, and visits it thrice to one evening devoted to Shake- 
speare or the English stage. 

You say you want to know about persons as well as places, 
and ask me to write you about any of the authors whom I 
have met with or heard of The " Pen and Ink Sketches," 
which you sent me in a Boston paper, are, you say, making a 
noise in the world. I have no doubt they are good, but the 
one before me is ancient in its information ; it declares that 
William and Mary Howitt reside " at Heidelberg ;" they 
certainly were not there last month, and they certainly were 
at Clapton yesterday, very comfortably settled at housekeep- 
ing, and surrounded by a family of as promising children as 
you would wish to see. 

William Howitt is engaged in writing a work in the style 
of his successful Visits to Remarkable Places, to be called, 
" Visits to the Homes and Haunts of the Poets of England," 
and for the purpose of making it complete, he does visit all 
the spots that he writes about ; he leaves Clapton to-morrow 
for Scotland. Mrs. Howitt continues to apply her knowledge 
of modern languages to translating, and has a work ready 
for publication, introducing a new candidate for public favour, 
from Denmark. She has also written one of the "Edinburgh 
Tales." 

The Howitts are the centre of a pleasant circle ; a portion 
of which circle I met there last evening, invited expressly to 



ENGLAND. 63 

talk over our respective Rhine adventures, for some of them 
have just returned from that land of legends and interest. 
Four miles to the London Bank, and four miles thence to 
Cavendish Square, after ten o'clock, is a bad preparation for 
a night of letter-writing from 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LV. 

London. 

Publishing — John Murray's store — Lady Hester Stanhope's Memoirs — 
Book business — Second-hand book-shops — Dealers in copperplates — 
Vamped-up books — Hack-writers — Love Letters of Mrs. Piozzi — 
Their American history — Conway, the actor — His curious career in 
the United States — His suicide at Charleston — Fate of the Love 
Letters — Their lover-like character — Literature. 

I BELIEVE I informed you, on my first visit to London, what 
a difficulty I was under regarding new books, and of the ex- 
treme exertion necessary to find out what is going on in the 
publishing world. Go to John Murray's for a book not pub- 
lished by him, and the spruce clerk in a mercantile counting- 
house will look as much astonished as if you asked for a copy 
of Hogarth at the Philadelphia Bank. He does not retail 
other people's publications, but is a merchant vending his own, 
wholesale. And so of the other great publishers. You do 
light upon a book-store now and then, where a small variety 
seems to be kept ; but examine closely and the mass of the 
books are in quantities, most probably of some religious cast 
or sectarian character. I " shopped" for some hours the other 
day for the curious and wordy Memoirs of Lady Hester Stan- 
hope, which I first heard oi from an American newspaper ; 
no shop among a dozen booksellers had it, but they all offered 
to send it to my lodgings. 



64 ENGLAND. 

In my perambulations I have fallen upon some of the 
second-hand book-shops, where an immense amount of trashy 
and a considerable quantity of good books may be picked up, 
at prices sometimes that are reasonable even to an American 
pocket. I stumbled the other day upon a dealer of conside- 
rable capital, who purchases every thing in a certain line 
which is ever sold very cheap. At his store you may be sure 
of completing your odd set of the Gentleman's Magazine, for 
he buys all the odd volumes of that more than a century old 
periodical. He carries on a trade with American auctioneers, 
to whom he consigns occasionally a mass of " old stuff" to get 
it out of his way, or to reduce his stock of particular books, 
mixing up some good works with the poor, to help the cata- 
logue. 

Then there is another class of dealers, who delight in se- 
cond-hand copper- plates; they buy these in quantities as they 
are forced upon the market by death or assignment, and reprint 
them on inferior paper at a lower price, and often with re- 
duced or new letter-press, vamping up a new title-page, jand 
giving some known publisher an advantage for allowing his 
name to appear on the imprint. Great numbers of such works 
find their way to America by the pound weight, and pay a 
profit. Then another publisher, when he gets enough plates 
together of a certain kind and size, vamps up a work under a 
taking title, written by some hack in a garret, for there are 
garretteers of literature in plenty still remaining — often men 
of education who have not succeeded in life, and are willing 
to earn by their pens enough to produce a good coat and a 
dinner. They live by jobbing thus, and by producing guinea 
articles for the Magazines — most happy when one is accepted, 
and down upon the publisher for the remuneration on the pub- 
lication-day. 

At John Russel Smith's in Old Compton Street, Soho Square, 
where cheap publications of works whose copy-rights have 
expired, are issued in considerable numbers, I picked up the 
other day, a small octavo, bearing the following title : " Love- 



ENGLAND. 65 

Letters of Mrs. Piozzi, written when she was Eighty, to 
William Augustus Conway." You might be tempted to say 
with Shakespeare in Twelfth Night : " Too old, by heaven !" 
The adventitious celebrity of Mrs. Piozzi, given her by her 
friendship for Dr. Johnson, and the appearance of her name in 
so many contemporaneous books, induced me to purchase it. 
I found it possessed some further interest on account of the 
American portion of its secret history, all told without cir- 
cumlocution in the preface. The letters were written so lately 
as 1820, the old loving lady dying in 1822, and Conway, who 
was an actor of great personal beauty, went to the United 
States in 1821, perfectly disgusted with the English, who 
would not receive him at his own estimate. He there met 
with no better success ; the press was unfavourable to him, 
and persecuted him, says the preface, with gibes and sneers, 
which are worse to bear, by a person who has too high a con- 
ceit of himself, than sober, though severe criticism. 

His mind, which appears to have been more like that of a 
sentimental lady, than a man, sank under the storm of paper 
pellets ; from an actor he became a devotee, and applied 
himself to the study of theology, with a view to taking 
orders. His despondency, however, increased ; and in a voy- 
age from New York to Charleston, he threw himself overboard 
and was drowned, as probably many readers will recollect, 
just as he was crossing the bar of Charleston, and as the 
other passengers were sitting down to dinner, on the 24th of 
January, 1828. He had declined to dine, telling the captain 
that he " should never require dinner again." He had been 
silent and reserved during the passage ; speaking to no one, 
but always acknowledging attentions or civilities with polite- 
ness and gratitude. Though the weather was exceedingly 
inclement at the time, his dress was thin summer clothing, 
as if he were insensible to the severity of the cold. The 
body was recovered ; his gold watch and money were found 
in his pockets ; and in his pocket-book was a bill of exchange 
endorsed to his mother. 

6* 



66 ENGLAND. 

His eiFects were brought back to New York by the captain 
of the packet (I am still quoting from the preface), where 
they were sold for the benefit of his relatives in England, and 
among other things sold were the originals of the letters now 
presented to the public ; the letters were purchased by a lady 
of the name of Ellet, a native of Western New York, but at 
present residing in Virginia, and in her possession they still 
remain. They were shown to several persons, and were lent 
to a gentleman with permission to take copies, and use them 
as he might think fit. Of this permission he availed himself, 
and from his copies sent to England, this editio princeps of 
Mrs. Piozzi's Love Letters has been printed. An affidavit 
is given from Joseph Strong, Commissioner of Deeds, in New 
York, in 1842, to prove that the copies are exact. 

Now you have the history of the love of the old lady of 
eighty, for a young man of twenty-six. L think you will 
agree with me, that the history is not without interest. That 
Mrs. Piozzi was in love, and that she wished to be loved 
again by the object of her affection, is beyond doubt, if her 
words have any meaning. She exhorts him to " exalt his 
love," significantly inviting him to bestow it on herself— typi- 
fied as " the flower produced in colder climates, which is 
sought for in old age," — in preference to the young " China 
rose, of no scent or flavour," for which he seems to have had 
a partiality. When she informs him that her heart was only 
twenty-six years old, and all his own, it can only be concluded 
that she wished him to believe that her feelings towards him 
were those of a loving woman of his own age. I give you a 
quotation ; after speaking of the true end of human existence, 
she says : — 

"This is preaching — but remember how the sermon is 
written at three, four, and five o'clock, by an octogenary pen 
— a heart (as Mrs. Lee says) twenty-six years old : and as 
H. L. P. feels it to be, — all your own ; — suffer your dear 
noble self to be in some measure benefited by the talents 
which are left me; your health to be restored by soothing 



ENGLAND. 67 

consolations while I remain here, and am able to bestow 
them. — All is not lost yet — you have a friend, and that friend 
is Piozzi." 

This curious history has excited considerable interest in 
circles calling themselves " literary," though indeed, there 
are so many other absorbing topics of conversation here, that 
literature comes in for a small share in many houses where I 
visit ; it is more difficult to keep the run of literary history 
while in London than in Philadelphia, where the regular re- 
ception of all the best foreign and domestic periodicals keeps 
you posted and thoroughly au courant respecting books : one's 
eyes have to do double duty here in gazing on so much that 
is quite novel to them besides publications. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LVL 



Near Windsor. 



Visit to the neighbourhood of Windsor— Mr. Jesse— Reign of ilie Stuarts 
—Mrs. Houstoun— Eton— Public breakfast— Dr. Hawtrey— The ex- 
amination— Boys in full dress— Speeches— Public dinner— Plate- 
Colonel Howard Vyse; his reputation; his mansion; a gardener; ids 
drawings of the Pyramids— Wall-fruits— Grapes and pine-apples— 
Cedar of Lebanon— The Queen's kitchen-garden ; its cost— Forcing- 
houses— Strawberries— American present for the Queen— Canvass- 
back ducks, 

I HAVE been to Windsor under circumstances which insured 
me a tolerably thorough inspection of what I wished to see. 
An engagement made before going to the Continent to revisit 
Stoke Park;— to be present at Eton College on Election 
Monday ;— to visit with Mr. Jesse, who is Surveyor of her 



68 ENGLAND. 

Majesty's Parks and Palaces, all the points which could in- 
terest me in the Forest and Windsor Park, has been fulfilled. 
By such facilities I have penetrated even to the Queen's Pri- 
vate Library and the Gold Room ! for an introduction to which 
I had in vain employed my friends in London to procure a 
■ permit. 

And first of Mr. Edward Jesse, of Upton Park, an author 
of much merit himself, particularly in the department of Na- 
tural History ; — he is the father of the author of those excel- 
lent books, " Memoirs of the Court of England during" the 
Reign of the Stuarts," " History of the Pretenders and their 
Adherents," &c. Mr. Jesse is, moreover, justly proud of a 
daughter, Mrs. Housloun, whose yacht-voyage to Texas was 
lately published. She was at the Isle of Wight when I was 
at her father's at Upton Park, which is situated between 
Stoke and Windsor Castle, within an easy walk of each. 
With such literary tastes and scientific pursuits as Mr. Jesse 
has cultivated — with such command over the improvements 
of Windsor, and Kew, and Hampton Court, you may suppose 
that he is in the full enjoyment of happiness, especially as his 
' children exhibit and cultivate tastes which minister to his 
own. 

We first went to the public breakfast at the house of the 
Head Master of Eton, the Rev. Edward Craven Hawtrey, 
D.D., who resides in a most beautiful and comfortable ancient 
mansion, near Eton College; the elegant meal was set out 
in the reverend gentleman's library and an adjoining room, 
his study, one of those charming places, the very feel of 
which touches one's literary heart. On the table were very 
superb silver ornaments, candelabra, &c., with inscriptions 
complimentary to Dr. Hawtrey, from various successive 
classes of this celebrated school. At the table were many 
of the nobility and gentry who had come to be present at the 
ceremonies, from love to the institution, — to be with their 
^ sons, or in pursuance of a practice many of them have kept 
up since they were scholars here. One old gentleman assured 



ENGLAND. Oy 

me, this was the fifty-fifth year he had attended the public 
breakfast and examination. The guests of the Head Master, 
a learned, amiable, and most efficient officer of the school, 
and on this occasion the great man of the day, came to the 
table without confusion, partook of the excellent repast, and 
made room for their successors. At ten o'clock, the public 
examination took place, when we had many schoolboy reci- 
tations in Latin, Greek, and English. Previous to the ex- 
amination I joined the party of the Provost. The boys were 
in full dress, with small-clothes and silk stockings, but suc- 
ceeded no better than boys do at any of our best American 
colleges. We saw the table set out with all the college 
plate; some of it of great antiquity. 

The King of Prussia lately presented a volume to Eton 
College ; it was exhibited on this occasion, previous to the 
grand banquet, and excited great interest. This curious 
work, which is in large folio, and beautifully printed on vel- 
lum, containing one hundred and fifty-five pages, is magnifi- 
cently bound in purple velvet, inlaid with massive ornaments 
of solid gold, and of curious and elaborate workmanship. This 
royal present to the college authorities is described in the 
letter which accompanied it from his Excellency the Prussian 
Minister as being " one of the only two copies on vellum of 
the edition of the ' Niebelungen' in great folio, struck off as a 
monument of typography at the Centenary Festival of Gut- 
temburg's Invention, in one hundred copies only. The two 
on vellum were struck off for the King and Queen of Prussia." 
The copy intended for the King of Prussia was presented by 
his Majesty to Eton College, and the other copy has been 
placed in the Royal Library at the palace at Berlin. The 
following is a translation of the German inscription on the 
first leaf of the book, in the handwriting of the Prussian 
Sovereign : — " To Eton School, the guardian of the hope of 
the rising generation, the promoter of all that is good and 
noble, the preserver of old Saxon intellect, this hero poem of 
the German people, and memorial of the jubilee of a German 



70 ENGLAND. 

invention, is presented, in memory of his visit, in January, 
1842, and in gratitude for his affectionate reception — by 
Fredrick Wilhehn, King of Prussia. Berlin, June 18, 1844." 

The exercises over, we called, by invitation, on Colonel 
Howard Vyse, to lunch at two o'clock ; this gentleman has 
employed his large fortune, and made himself eminent in his 
extensive explorations of the Egyptian Pyramids ; — his quarto 
volumes on the subject have reached you; they were much 
quoted from by Mr. Gliddon, the lecturer on Egypt. Colonel 
Vyse occupies a large, ancient family mansion, where com- 
fort, rather than show, presides; he is an enthusiastic gardener ; 
keeps in his employ many educated horticulturists, and has 
altogether one of the most successful fruit-gardens on the 
island ; pine-apples, grapes, huge strawberries, cherries, apri- 
cots, &c., are in the greatest abundance. His walls for 
fruits are very extensive. We found the Colonel in his com- 
fortable study, where he explained his extensive plans, views 
of the Pyramids, and his operations, at instructive length. 
Colonel Vyse has experienced a slight paralytic attack ; he 
is also still suffering from family bereavements, the loss of his 
wife, and the drowning of a little son in his own beautiful 
lake. A promenade around his grounds and great extent of 
walls for fruit, brought us to the pinery, where pine-apples 
are cultivated with remarkable success. This fruit will be 
found on the tables of most gentlemen of a certain fortune, 
along with melons, and a variety of forced productions, espe- 
cially grapes ; the latter are decidedly better for being raised 
under glass. I procured here some fine cones of the Cedar 
of Lebanon for your Philadelphia gardeners. 

After lunch, we went to visit the Queen's new kitchen- 
garden, near Frogmore ; Mr. Jesse's station admitted us 
where strangers cannot otherwise penetrate. One hundred 
and sixty thousand dollars have lately been expended on this 
new garden for royalty. The forcing-houses are extensive ; 
the glasses move by machinery like clock-work. We paced 
the superb graperies, pineries, peach and nectarine forcing- 



ENGLAND. 71 

houses, and tasted fine specimens of the Queen's fruits; the 
Chasselas grapes and Prince Albert strawberries, were cer- 
tainly never exceeded for excellence. 

On my observing that Dr. Brinckle of Philadelphia, had 
solved that difficult problem in which European gardeners 
had failed, of hybridising the Alpine strawberry with the 
larger cultivated kinds, and thus producing a perpetual 
bearer, the head gardener, Mr. Ingram, expressed the strongest 
interest ; said he had not succeeded in his various attempts, 
and begged that I would endeavour to forward him a few 
plants, in order that he might serve the royal table with this 
delicious fruit, at unseasonable periods. I have promised for 
my fi-iend. Dr. B., that the Queen shall be gratified ; she 
has already eaten canvass-back ducks from America with 
gusto, from a parcel sent over to the late Granville Penn, who 
forwarded a portion to his neighbour at Windsor. I little 
thought, when going to England, that I could suggest any 
novelty for the Queen's table ! By the frequency with which 
the subject was mentioned, I was impressed with its impor- 
tance, and have written to Dr. Brinckle to induce him to 
fulfil my promise made in his name.* You shall be carried 
in my next to Windsor interior, and see the Gold ! 

Yours, &c. 



* The vines were sent out by a Boston steamer, and reached their 
destination. 



72 ENGLAND, 



LETTER LVII. 

Near Windsor. 

Extravagances of royalty — Windsor Castle— Pensioners— The kitchen 
— Its size — The houselceeper — Manager of the cuisine — The Queen's 
dining-room — Uncertainly of the royal family's presence — Emigrating 
pages — Queen's dining-roora — George the Fourth's silver wine-cooler 
— Private apartments — Royal private library — Its appearance — Con- 
tents and furniture — Presentation copies — Often returned — Queen 
Anne's closet— View of the Gold Room — Twelve millions of dol- 
lars in plate — A king's advocacy of the slave trade — George the 
Fourth's snuff-boxes — Nell Gvvynn's bellows — The golden peacock 
— Tippoo Saib's footstool — Golden candelabra — Gold plates, knives, 
forks, and spoons — The king of the Gold Room — Windsor the 
pride of the nation. 

I HAVE several things to say respecting- the extravagances 
of royalty, that cannot fail to strike the American ear with 
surprise ; here, these things are matters of course, and excite 
scarcely a remark. I have been through Windsor Castle, even 
into the kitchen. As you have a good general idea of the 
exterior, enter with me the lower ward, and let me see if I 
can enumerate any thing that will be new to you. Around 
this ward or quadrangle are a great number of houses, each 
occupied by private families, royal pensioners, or privileged 
persons, who seek in the air of the Queen's greatest palace a 
freedom from rent ; they have also some perquisites for per- 
forming services, or occupying sinecure stations ; a kind of 
leeches, who have, by old customs, or old grants, these privi- 
leges assigned them. Walk now through a series of groined 
Saxon arches, on which the royal apartments are built, and 



♦ ENGLAND. 73 

enter the spacious kitchen, while Mr. Jesse is good enough 
to pursue the intricate passages and call the female house- 
keeper. This nice little cooking establishment is seventy-five 
feet long and proportionately broad, with arrangements for a 
dozen fires, where roast, baked, and boiled, might be going on 
in sufficient quantity to accommodate hundreds of guests ; 
but roast and boiled are apparently not now altogether the 
fashion, for the whole ceiling and sides of the kitchen are 
hung with stew-pans of bright copper, in alarming numbers, 
of exactly the construction used by the best Paris cooks, and 
there are numerous furnaces for their use, precisely like those 
of Louis Philippe, or the restaurants of the Palais Royal. 
I thought if the author of Don Quixote could see this room, 
he would have made his knight conjure up a host of enemies, 
to conquer whose metallic casques would have been one of 
his usual triumphs. 

But here comes the complaisant housekeeper, with her 
bunch of keys, and dressed in "silk and satin." Mr. Jesse 
takes leave of the manager of the cuisine, who assures him 
that all the necessary apparatus, smoke-jacks, and stew-pans, 
and furnaces, and hydrants, are in perfect order, and need at 
present no more outlay. Penetrate a long set of entries, 
ascend a staircase or two, peep out of several oriel windows, 
and enter the queen's dining-room, stepping over on the route 
various tapestries, hangings, and pictures, in the dark corridors, 
for the palace is now in course of repair or cleaning, as it 
generally is when the royal family is absent ; it is not to be 
occupied until their return from Germany, — that much is 
known, but nobody is aware of the period of its next being 
needed ; this is the state of uncertainty that all connected 
with it live in much of the year. The pages and servants 
are on duty in turn — say a month at a time, and they migrate 
from one palace to another, wherever the fancy of the Queen 
may incline her to go — often on a sudden notice ; their own 
family and private arrangements are, of course, constantly 
liable to this kind of interruption. 

VOL. II. 7 



74 ENGLAND. 

The (lining-room is rich with gilding, in a rather heavy 
style of architecture, but adorned with costly looking-glasses; 
the doors of entrance are two, one behind the other, with 
mirrors in the panels so arranged that the Queen, from her 
seat at the table, can see who is coming in before they appear, 
as well as what dish is approaching ; this is one of the ar- 
rangements of George the Fourth, who passed much of the 
latter portion of his reign in this truly magnificent castle. 
His celebrated silver wine-cooler, six feet high, so heavy as to 
require the strength of several men to lift it, is in this room 
on the left as you enter. As a specimen of the silversmith's 
art, it continues to be unrivalled ; Bacchus, — vines filled with 
the most luxuriant bunches, and chasings of the richest kinds, 
cover its enormous surface ; oji the occasions of the birth of 
a royal child, this wine-cooler is used for punch ; the contents 
could scarcely be less than a barrel. The Queen and the 
prince have each an appropriated regular seat : the table 
would hold probably twenty-five or thirty guests ; the chairs 
were placed round the mahogany, as if just ready for the 
cloth to be laid ; the carpets apparently were about to be re- 
moved. 

Several other magnificent private apartments were hurried 
over, and interest was made and liberty refused, to see the 
Queen's private library. Mr. Jesse was not to be outdone, 
however ; he penetrated to the sanctum of the librarian, who 
excused himself through a half-closed door, by saying he was 
unwell ! Our excellent cicerone declared that he had an 
American on his arm, and ivould take him in ; so in we went, 
past a liveried understrapper, who with forced respect bowed 
to Mr. J.'s office, and allowed us to enter. The library-room 
and the books are worthy their owner ; not very numerous, 
the volumes have been culled with great taste and discrimina- 
tion. Histories of England and other countries, superbly 
illustrated works in exquisite bindings, royal folios, poems, 
and works of light reading, from England's best authors, are 
ranged around on beautiful shelves. The furniture of the 



ENGLAND. 75 

library is strikingly comfortable ; easy chairs, for use rather 
than show, but elegant, and solid tables with the best red mo- 
rocco covered tops, for opening large volumes upon, and a few 
beautiful lounges, constitute nearly the whole. Books and 
pamphlets from titled personages or eminent authors, were 
lying about on the tables, lately offered to the Queen's accept- 
ance, each w^ith an autograph of the writer, " humbly" re- 
questing the honour of the royal eye to light upon its pages. 

It is a favour when the book is retained, a great portion 
being returned to the authors ! a mortification they must 
submit to. In case they are kept, a letter of thanks is forwarded 
to the author, of the most gracious kind ; sometimes, policy 
of state, or private feelings, induces a return of some valuable 
present, as irrthe case of a volume from foreigners of distinc- 
tion, from writers of mark, or from noble authors ; or the 
subject of the book may require it ; as well as a peculiarly 
happy combination of author and dedication. 

At one end of the room is Queen Anne's closet, left with 
hier furniture in it : it is a small room in a tower, the windows 
of which command one of the finest views of the Windsor 
scenery. The old kitchen-garden, which was in view, has just 
been removed from this scene to Frogmore, at vast expense' 
merely because it was an eyesore. Forest and river, and 
villages— steeples and distant heights, as viewed from this 
great elevation, combine to form a picture such as would never 
fatigue an eye accustomed to appreciate the beauties of natu- 
ral landscape. 

From the library we went to the apartment called techni- 
cally " the Gold Room." Though I surveyed it leisurely, I 
can give only an outline of its various treasures ; I commenced 
taking notes from the mouth of the custode, who with his 
various assistants is every day of the year fully employed in 
cleaning the plate, but he said it was contrary to orders to 
allow any to be taken. What memoranda I did make, and 
what I remember accurately, I will state. 

The whole collection is valued at twelve millions of dollars ! 



76 ENGLAND. 

There are glass cases like a silversmith's shop, and behind 
the glass are the principal articles. Here is a dinner service 
of silver gilt of the most gorgeous kind, presented by the 
merchants of Liverpool, to the late William the Fourth, long 
before he was king, in reward for his advocacy of the slave 
trade ! There is a salver of immense size, made from the 
gold snuffboxes alone, of George the Fourth— the lids and 
inscriptions curiously preserved on the surface in a kind of 
mosaic of gold ; its value fifty thousand dollars. Then you 
may see near it Nell Gwynn's bellows — the handles, nozzle, 
&c., of gold ! — the golden peacock inlaid with diamonds and 
rubies from Delhi — not as large as a pheasant, but valued at 
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars ; — the footstool of Tip- 
poo Saib, a solid gold lion with crystal eyes, the value of its 
gold seventy-five thousand dollars; — George the Fourth's 
celebrated golden candelabra for a dinner-table, valued at fifty 
thousand dollars, so heavy that two men are required to lift 
each. Piles upon piles of golden plates, sufiicient to dine two 
hundred and fifty persons, with ample changes, were spread 
about or in the cleaner's hands. 

If this enumeration does not satisfy your aching vision, we 
will ask the custode, who seems extremely anxious, in the 
midst of so much treasure, and would evidently be glad to 
get rid of us, to open a long series of dresser-looking drawers. 
Here are 140 dozen each of gold knives and forks of various 
patterns which he repeats the names of; as "oak," " stag," 
" George the Third," and so on. Another set of dressers ! — • 
what can they contain 1 only 140 dozen each of gold table 
and tea spoons, all arranged in the most perfect order. Take 
another walk up and down the room with glass cases on 
tables in the middle, filled with gorgeous gold, and try to im- 
press some form of taste more elegant than another ! It is 
vain — memory only carries away a confused idea of riches, 
such as must have cost poor underground labourers lives of 
toil, and sweat, and pain, to procure, — to do no good, — to be 
almost as useless as it was in the mine, for it is rarely pro- 



ENGLAND. 77 

duced, and requires a host of human beings merely to keep it 
bright.* 

A little conversation with this king" of the Gold Room, in- 
formed us it was a 'poor time to see the plate, because fifty 
chests were removed to be used by the Queen at Buckingham 
Palace! He said it was an awful thing to have to get the 
plate out for a state dinner, it was so heavy ! and the frequent 
changes made it a labour to the pages more onerous than the 
most overtasked worker in iron ! Mr. Jesse asked him if the 
recently inserted iron bars in a certain window had relieved 
his mind from anxiety respecting robbers'? He said it had ; 
" but you know," he added, turning to me, " with so much 
plate one could hardly sleep, when we knew one of the guards 
outside might be bribed at any time, the wall mounted by 
means of ladders, and a great theft be committed." I could 
scarcely refrain from saying what I thought — that it would 
be a great blessing to many of the poor of England and Ire- 
land, if the metal was put in circulation. Here they do not 
think its being otherwise used than as it is, would do any 
good. Even the radical Joseph Hume, does not begrudge, he 
says, Windsor and all its contents ; the whole nation is proud 
of it — proud to have it shown to foreign royalty, and to boast 
that no other nation on the globe can make such an exhibition. 
Is it or is it not an empty boast 1 

Windsor, seen under such auspices, is not yet exhausted. 

Yours, &c. 

* It is proper to remark that much of the plate here alluded to is of 
silver gilt ; a considerable portion, however, is gold ; the value, twelve 
millions, remains the same. 



78 E N G L A ^' D. 



LETTER LVIII. 



Near Windsor. 



Expense of royalty — Appointments to office — The land and deer of 
royalty — The quantity stated — The poor in contrast — Royal dogs — 
The cost of the royal stables — Royal carriages— Liveries — The 
Queen's sleigh — Prince of Wales and his sister — Goat team — Well- 
fed groom — Master of the Qiieen'a burk-hounds — The doggery — Ride 
to Virginia Water — Prince Albert's pheasants; their feeders — Acres 
of coops — The greatest grape-vine — A fairy scene — Virginia Water 
— Frigate at anchor — George the Fourth's fish-house — Artificial ruins 
— The falls — Anecdote — English inn. 

My enumeration of the " plate and things" in the " Gold 
Room" satisfied you, did it not ] that royalty is maintained 
at some more expense than a President ; that the Queen is 
not a more efficient member of the government than the suc- 
cessors of Washington, appears to be equally evident. She 
does not delight to change government officers every four 
years — to turn out good postmasters and mistresses to appoint 
new and untried politicians. Good officers die in their gears 
here," and they have time given to them to learn their trade; 
hence it is, that many things are better done in England than 
in America. But to proceed with my enumeration of what I 
saw at Windsor worth repeating. 

The royal pair — Mrs. Victoria Regina and Mr. Albert Uxor, 
have twelve thousand acres of land appropriated to them and 
their deer — this is the quantity in the royal parks and grounds. 
They have thirty thousand deer ranging these grounds; land 



ENGLAND. 79 

is expensive, and there is not too much of it. It is true, that 
a few people are begging bread all about, but then thirty 
thousand deer are requisite for royal state. Many a poor old 
creature in Ireland would be glad of half that is expended 
upon one little dog at Windsor. 

As dogs have been named, let us leave St. George's Hall 
and the pictures for the present, and take a snuff of the stables 
and kennels, and equestrian palaces. 

An appropriation was recently made in Parliament o? three 
hundred thousand dollars to rebuild these appurtenances, and 
accordingly they are luxuriously large, neat, and airy. The 
rows of gray ponies — there ^.xq forty when the Queen is here — 
look sleek and comfortable, as if they knew what royal horse- 
fare was. Among the horses is a Java nag, about the height 
of one's knee, presented to the Queen by some Eastern poten- 
tate. Several of the royal carriages are plain — such as you 
might drive at Philadelphia without exciting attention as 
ostentatious, unless you could induce some beggar to get his 
bread by wearing livery and hanging on to a gold tassel ; none 
but a beggar would very much like to exhibit himself in 
America, as they do here, in livery; — and if he did he would 
get as bad a name as the hangman, and be teased out of his 
existence ! 

The Queen's sleigh, very much laughed at not long ago, 
because it was sent for from Brighton in a great hurry once 
when a few flakes fell, is very handsome. It has a kind of 
seat fastened behind for the driver to sit on, and stuffed shoes 
(a capital idea) for him to slip his feet into : a sleigh-driver 
behind his vehicle, would cut an odd figure in western New 
York. The sleigh looks like a fish out of water, where there 
is so little probability of snow for the pleasures of sleighing. 

The young prince and princess are not forgotten in this 
establishment; — they have pony-phaetons prepared in case 
they should learn to drive ; their pretty goat-carriage, for 
which they have well-trained white goats, is here. The well- 
fed groom who shows this menagerie, looks fat and com- 



80 ENGLAND. 

fortable, as if English roast-beef and plum-pudding were no 
strangers to him. 

After admiring the handsome residence of the Master of the 
Queen's buck-hounds (a most fat salary is attached), it is 
worth while to glance at the lady's pet-dogs : first see their 
handsome portraits, painted by no less a personage than the 
celebrated Landseer, the first painter in his line in the world, 
as they are elegantly framed and suspended in the front-room 
of the lodge ; then go with the portly keeper into the kennel. 
On opening the door, a number of fierce-looking dogs spring 
out as if about to make a meal on one; the voice and whip of 
their keeper soon quiets them, and we are free from the first 
emotions of terror, and can examine the great variety of 
breeds, from the fierce blood-hound and wolf-dog, to the curious 
little black-tongued dog from China, and the strange and 
wing-legged Dutch dogs. The keeper said, that the Queen, 
when at Windsor, often visits her pets at the kennel. She 
has here a pack of miniature beagles. 

You have now an idea, but a very faint one, of royal mag- 
nificence. Let us take a ride to Virginia Water, through the 
" Long Walk," an avenue of many miles, and stop at what 
remains of George the Fourth's Cottage, in Windsor Park, 
to see a superb conservatory and dwelling, kept in elegant 
order as a resting-place for the Queen in her rides. Stop, 
too, at an old building, formerly a palace, but now converted 
to the use oi thirteen families, who do nothing but wait upon 
Prince Albert's hunting-dogs, feed his pheasants, and take 
care of his preserves. Keepers and dogs are lolling about in 
the sun, fat and lazy ; but five or six are busy ! See yonder, 
are many acres occupied at intervals with capacious coops, 
where the hens are confined who have hatched a fQ\Y thou- 
sand pheasants, for the Prince's private shooting ! 1 Those 
nien sowing grain broadcast, are only feeding the young ones 
— they are not sowing wheat for the Irish poor ! No wonder 
that Punch gave a picture of Mr. Albert shooting game^in a 
net, with men behind him to load his guns ! The allusion 



ENGLAND. 81 

has so much truth in it, that it tells — cuts deeper, than we 
could understand when we first saw it in that veracious 
periodical. 

A grape-vine, in an old grape-house near by, is the giant 
of the Black Hamburgh species ; though the one at Hampton 
Court being more accessible and better known, carries off the 
reputation which this appears to me to be entitled to. The 
vine, at Cumberland Lodge, is one hundred and thirty-eight 
feet long; it completely covers this distance, and the branches 
cover that space for sixteen feet in width. This remarkable 
vine had on it two thousand immense bunches, all nearly ripe» 
and seventeen hundred had been removed to improve the re- 
mainder ; there can be little doubt, that the entire produce 
exceeds considerably a ton and a half weight of the most 
delicious grapes, all supposed to go to the royal table. 

Let us drive some miles further, through the superb park, 
encountering the most venerable oaks and beeches that you 
can imagine ; stop at another elegant lodge, and inquire of a 
royal-liveried servant with a hat nearly all over gold, the best 
way to get a view of the celebrated beauties of Virginia Water. 
He — even the royal-liveries ! — takes a large fee, as if ac^ 
customed to it — directs our carriage to drive round the pre- 
mises which are on the extreme verge of the park — to meet 
us at a little inn, — unlocks a green gate, — and directs us to 
follow the meanderings of the artificial 'water to the "Falls." 

What a fairy scene ! a lesson has been successfully taken 
of nature here; she has been humoured into displaying her 
natural beauties with a success that surpasses all you have 
ever seen. On your left are the crooked shores, to all ap- 
pearance, of a perfect natural lake, every where as wide as 
the Schuylkill river at Philadelphia, and often double that 
size. The shores have a natural look, with pebbles on the 
strand. Yonder is a frigate riding at anchor — a miniature, it 
is true, but still a very sizeable ship ; that is for the Queen 
to sail about in ; she has real " Salts'^ to navigate it — for see 
there ! a boat with five sailors, has just touched the strand ; 



82 ENGLAND. 

the poor fellows have landed close to us on this " desolate 
coast" to get some prog, or to have a race on the uninhabited 
shore, which is as solitary as any in the middle of the ocean ; 
not quite ! for there is a party of three Londoners approach- 
ing — the ladies with little parasols to keep off a shower — 
they are sauntering along as if just shipwrecked in a savage 
land, looking for food. An officer of the navy commands this 
frigate, and has a nice time of leisure and solitude. 

Opposite, is George the Fourth's fishing-house, more like a 
Japanese dwelling than was absolutely necessary to bait hooks 
in; on your left, are the ruins of a temple — a Grecian temple, 
with columns tumbling down, and briars growing "naturally !" 
in the architrave; — what a pity that you know they were 
planted there ! for otherwise it would be a very respectable 
ruin, which indeed it is fast becoming in reality. Some 
towering pine trees overshadow it, and add much to its lonely 
air. An obelisk, and a Belvidere, too, adorn the scene. 

Turn a sharpish promontory ; here is an elegant mansion 
with more preserves around it, and you are cautioned by a 
board not to pry into the mysteries of the establishment ; 
mysteries, if rumour speaks true, not altogether creditable to 
the " Head of the Church," George the Fourth. What are 
those retainers doing beyond ] In a real pine forest — just 
such a one as people in Jersey go to for a whortleberry-frolic 
— natural even to the very dry sand under foot — and shaded 
by real " Jersey pines," — a party are pitching quoits; they are 
probably at a loss for amusement on board another frigate just 
along the shore, and have come to play with the stable-boys 
of the inn! What a pity they were not reaping the grain 
sown to the Prince's pheasants, and carrying the produce to 
the poor ! 

Enter a thick wood, and see the artificial waterfall. All 
the water which runs into and fills this lake, except of course 
the evaporated portion, tumbles over some rocks in about as 
great quantity as the jets of two Philadelphia hydrants. On 
the left is a long arm of the lake, the termination hid artifi- 



ENGLAND. 83 

cially ; it imitates the lake at Altorf, near Lucerne, though 
the great feature, that of mountains, is wanting. 

George the Fourth had h great horror of being gazed at ; 
many who could get no view otherwise, used to resort to 
Virginia Water, where a fellow with Yankee invention, made, 
a good living by hiring out telescopes to peep at him, till 
found out, and his apparatus bought up ! 

Let us lunch at the neat little English inn, pay a good 
round sum for bread, cheese, and ale, fee the hostlers hand- 
somely, and believe we have had a very agreeable day of 
recreation. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LIX. 

Near Windsor. 

Remarkable trees in Windsor Park — Heme's oak — Prince Albert's po- 
pularity spoiled — Measurement of two trees — St. George's chapel — 
Order of the Garter — Royal dust — Vanity of ambition — Benjamin 
West — His fame on the wane — Disinterment of Charles the First — 
Henry the Eighth's coffin — Byron's sarcasm — Death of the Princess 
Charlotte — Her monument, &c. — Vandyck room— Queen's drawing- 
room — The king's — The king's closet — Throne-room — Waterloo 
chamber — Ball-room — Guard chamber — Nelson's ship — Marlboro' 
and Wellington. 

It would never do to leave the grounds about Windsor 
without visiting its most remarkable trees, and especially 
Heme's oak. Mr. Jesse kindly accompanied me on these ex- 
cursions, and proved an admirable assistant. He is an ardent 
admirer of nature, and familiar with all the most beautiful 
scenery of Windsor and Hampton Court, of both which he is 
the guardian. On the route, which proved a fatiguing one, 



84 ENGLAND. 

you may learn that Prince Albert has made himself unpopu- 
lar in the Windsor neighbourhood by cutting down an ancient 
public walk through the park, where the neighbours have had 
a " right of way" for centuries; the road has been made a 
deep cut of, so as to prevent pedestrians from seeing into the 
park ; his object was to obtain more privacy for the members 
of the family, who were overlooked sometimes when walking 
or driving. The people have resented this abridgment of their 
privileges, and talk of carrying the matter for decision to the 
courts ; an unhappy little event w^hich might as well have 
been avoided ; it is a sore place in Windsor society, which it 
is best not to touch. 

" Heme's oak" is now dead ; it is enclosed by a fence to 
preserve it as long as possible. Immortalized by Shakspeare 
in the " Merry Wives of Windsor," this tree long retained 
the reputation of identity ; but recent discussions have ren- 
dered this doubtful. Not a particle of vitality now remains 
in its old trunk, but ivy has begun to cling to it. 

I shall not trouble you to recount my admiration for other 
individual trees of Windsor Park, except to mention the size 
of two, and to remark that England h^as as fine and as large 
trees, and many quite as beautiful, as the United States — not 
so many certainly, but in these old parks they have stood alone 
so long that plenty of time and room has been allowed them 
to take their natural shapes; they have not been drawn up by 
the sun so much as ours, and they look the better for it; their 
slow growth insures their stability. One beech tree measured 
at six feet from the ground, thirty-six feet round, and an oak 
at the same height thirty-eight feet ; its enormous branches 
and gnarled and ragged appearance, and the great projecting 
roots which emanate from it, cannot fail to elicit admiration. 
Some of the beeches, 1 feel confident, cannot be rivalled for 
size ; those that have undergone the operation of beheading 
(called pollarding), exceeded all my expectations for pictu- 
resque beauty and peculiarity of form. 

Returning to the castle I should be pleased to give even a 



ENGLAND. 85 

faint idea of St. George's Chapel : it is one of the most im- 
posing- rooms in England, and is admitted by good judges of 
architecture to be nearly perfect in its details. Here the 
Order of the Garter is conferred ; over the knights' stalls hang 
their casques and motionless banners ; each stall has a brass 
plate with name and date of installation ; the mantle, sword, 
and crest of the respective owners are also fully displayed. 
Here is indeed historic ground, for in this chapel every king 
of England from Edward the Third has worshipped ; princes 
and nobles moulder beneath our feet ; as Mr. Jesse remarked : 
" What an emblem have we before our eyes of the vanity of 
human ambition ! a warrior or a statesman dies, his banner is 
lowered from the w^alis, and before it is replaced by that of 
another, he has become unlamented, and perhaps forgotten." 

In this celebrated chapel, the window over the elegant 
altar was designed by Benjamin West, and executed by others 
on large squares of glass. The effect is not good ; an attempt 
has been lately made to have it removed ; Prince Albert, who 
is said to have little taste in these matters, being appealed to, 
he said he rather liked it, and so it remains. The Queen has a 
noble pew near the altar, which she enters by a private door. 

I may tell my countrymen without offending them that our 
Benjamin West's fame as a painter has been on the wane ever 
since the death of his patron, Qeorge the Third ; in a pecu- 
niary view the English would not give half as much for his 
pictures as formerly. In this depreciation they have no feeling 
to the place of his birth ; but the best judges have decided 
against his talent, and believe his execution deficient in va- 
riety, and too staid and stiff. 

In this chapel Charles the First, it v/as at last discovered 
in 1818, was interred, and as it was determined to remove all 
doubts, the coffin was opened. I conversed with an old man 
who was present when the head was found nearly perfect, 
attached to the body by cere-cloth. Sir Henry Halford's ac- 
count says : — " When the head had been entirely disengaged 
from the attachments which confined it, it was found to be 

VOL. II. 8 



86 ENGLAND. 

loose, and without any difficulty was taken up and held to 
view." George the Fourth and a number of the nobility 
were present at this odd identification ; they peeped into 
Henry the Eighth's cofiin in the same vault; it contained 
nothing but the mere skeleton of " old Harry," with the ex- 
ception of a small portion of the beard on the chin. Lord 
Byron wrote the following sarcasm on the subject : 

*' Famed for contemptuous breach of sacred lies, 
By headless Charles see heartless Henry lies: 
Between them stands another sceptered thing — 
It moves, it reigns — in all but name a king; 
Charles to his people, Henry to his wife — 
In him the double tyrant starts to life : 
Justice and Death have mixed their dust in vain, 
Each royal vampire wakes to life again. 
Ahl what can tombs avail! since these disgorge 
The blood and dust of both — to make a George." 

The profound impression made upon the public mind, even 
in America, on the death of the Princess Charlotte, cannot 
but be in the recollection of many ; she was the nation's hope 
and pride ; virtuous — she was to reform the manners and 
morals of the court injured by the conduct of her father, 
George the Fourth ; — educated for a queen, she was all the 
nation wished ; — the beloved and legitimate heir of the sepa- 
rated father and mother, she shared alike the loyal homage of 
noble and commoner. In one short hour all this was blasted 
by death ; a nation's tears never fell more profusely than when 
the event we^s announced. 

How to do honour to her memory became soon the question ; 
a monument in this superb chapel was decided on ; small con- 
tributions only were allowed, in order that the whole people 
might participate ; an enormous sum was collected, a com- 
mittee appointed to expend the amount, and the thing ended 
in a job, as is too often the case. A sculptor obtained the 
contract, had it executed by a sub- contractor, and pocketed 
the enormous balance for doing nothing. The result is a 



ENGLAND. S7 

cenotaph in a chapel forming part of St. George's ; the criti- 
cism of Mr. Jesse on its execution is too just to be omitted : 

" The cenotaph of the much-lamented Princess is by no 
means remarkable for its design or execution. On a bier, at 
each end of which is a weeping attendant, the corpse of the 
Princess is stretched, the chief points or outline of the figure, 
being distinguished through a light drapery. In the back- 
ground, the immaterial part of her is represented as soaring 
from the tomb, while on each side of her is an angel, one of 
whom is bearing the infant whom the Princess died in giving 
birth to. These figures, as well as those of the attendants, 
are stiff and uninteresting ; while the fact of a spirit being 
represented in any thing so substantial as marble is, to say 
the least, a very singular anomaly. This is by VVyatt, and is 
surmounted by a gilded canopy, completely out of character 
with the simplicity of this part of the fabric : 

' Of sackclolh was her wedding garment made. 
Her bridal's fruit was ashes : in the dust 

The fair-haird daughter of the Isles -is laid, 
The love of millions ! How we did intrust 
Futurity to her!' " — Bvron. 

Other monuments, painted glass windows, repaired and 
added to by a London artist of the present day, who makes the 
beautiful substance as well as the old professors, — you can see 
no difference, — and a hundred objects too numerous to record, 
but each recalling the most interesting historical events, send 
you away from St. George's Chapel with a feeling of having 
lived over again centuries of England's eventful history. 

I dare not extend my letters to a full description of Windsor 
Castle, else would I walk you through the Vandyck room, 
where are upwards of thirty paintings by that celebrated 
master; — the Queen's drawing-room with its emblazoned 
shields and pictures ; — the King's closet with its crimson silk 
hangings; — the King's drawing-room with paintings by Ru- 
bens, pier glasses, and Mosaic cabinets ; — but above all, the 
throne-room, and the Waterloo chamber ; in the latter are 



88 EN.GLAND. 

thirty-seven portraits of the sovereigns who reigned, the most 
celebrated commanders who fought, and the statesmen who 
were at the head of affairs, at the period of the battle of 
Waterloo, principally painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence. 
Nor will I describe the Gobelin tapestry on the walls of the 
ball-room with the history of Jason and the Golden Fleece 
woven in beautiful pictures on its surface. 

You must pause for a brief paragraph, however, in the 
guard chamber, with its groined ceiling, and its specimens of 
ancient armour; view a moment the foremast of Nelson's 
ship the Victory, through which a cannon-ball passed at the 
battle of Trafalgar ; — Chantrey's fine bust of the hero ; busts 
of Marlborough and Wellington, and the paltry little flags, 
stuck above, by the presentation of which annually those he- 
roes or their heirs, hold the teimre of Blenheim and Straths- 
fieldsaye with which a nation rewarded the conquerors. A 
thousand other objects, pictures, and ornaments might well 
detain a visiter like myself not pressed by time by guides in 
a hurry, but free to remain as fancy dictated ; — but they might 
be tedious in print, and I forbear further description. The 
world can produce but one Windsor Castle ! say you if it is 
desirable there should be two 1 

Yours, &c. 



ENGLAND. 89 



LETTER LX. 



Near Windsor. 



The tomb of Gray — Gray's Church — Two funerals in his churchyard — 
The service in the church — At the graves — Rev. Mr. Shaw — Tomb 
of genius — The churchyard — Tomb of Gray's aunt and mother — 
Touching inscription — Gray's tablet — Monument raised by John 
Penn— Lines on it, 

I MUST not leave this beautiful neighbourhood without 
giving you an account of the tomb of the poet Gray. "Gray's 
Church," as it is called, is situated in Mr. Penn's noble park; 
the steeple is in full view from the principal drawing-room 
windows — the church itself hid by trees and shrubbery, old 
yews, box trees, and other beautiful plants. I worshipped in 
it twice yesterday, the last time under 'Circumstances of 
peculiar solemnity ; on the conclusion of the service, the 
sermon being on death, two funerals were seen to approach 
the graveyard (where Gray is buried), Vv'inding along through 
the park in solemn procession, the coffins covered with white, 
and carried by the neighbouring peasants ; one of the de- 
ceased was an elderly man, the other a youth — each teach- 
ing a solemn lesson to the beholders ; they Vv'cre both of the 
lower class, as they say here, but the poetry of Burns de- 
clares that " A man's a man for a' that ;" — the lines of .Gray, 
brought forcibly to the mind by the place and the circum- 
stances, rung through my memory : — 

" Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 

Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; 
Hands that the rod of empire might have sway'd, 
Or waked to ecstacy the living lyre."' 

8* 



90 ENGLAND. 

Often as I visited this exquisitely beautiful " Country 
Churchyard," and its gem of a country church, I never felt 
that I had seen enough of it, or had inhaled the true spirit of 
the scene sufficiently. The rector's manner was solemn, 
and his matter excellent ; he prayed emphatically, as all of 
the established church do, for " Queen Victoria, Prince 
Albert, the Prince of Wales, the Dowager Adelaide, and all 
the royal family," and for Parliament, &c., that God might 
see meet in his goodness to endow them with wisdom from 
above — that they might put under their feet all their ene- 
mies, &-C. 

After the service the two coffins were brought into the 
church ; the two mourning families took possession of the 
surrounding pews, a short ceremony was performed, and they 
were slowly carried to their last resting-place, amid the silent 
tears and sobs of neighbours and friends. The manner of the 
clergyman, the Rev. Mr, Shaw, most solemn and impressive, 
seemed to carry with it something heavenly and soothing; I 
left the scene with feelings, which if oftener encouraged, 
would make us better men 

The ancient church has undergone some important repairs 
lately, in the interior, while care has been taken to preserve 
the exterior as it has stood for a century or two. No rural 
sight in England or elsewhere has impressed me more for- 
cibly than Stoke church. One likes this isolation of genius; 
you are not distracted from one poet by thinking of another, 
as in Westminster Abbey, but you study the character and 
works of Shakespeare at Stratford, or of Gray at Stoke, with 
more interest, because they have, as it were, the whole 
ground. Here all is so quiet — there is so much repose 
around ; the churchyard is enclosed by trees growing and 
grown so naturally, that it is hard to think of a more appro- 
priate place for a poet ; there can be no more suitable spot 
for Gray, for this is the very ground alluded to in his Elegy.* 

* Mr. Penn was ihe purchaser oi'lhe original autograph of the Elegy 
at a late sale for the sum of £100. 



ENGLAND. 91 

The tomb itself is of brick, surmounted by a plain blue 
marble slab, immediately in front of the chancel window. It 
was erected by the poet to his mother and his aunt. Perhaps 
no inscription was ever penned which carried so much force 
in a few lines, as that to his parent ; I have copied the 
whole : — 

"In the vault beneath are deposited, in the hope of a joyful 
resurrection, the remains of Mary Antrobus. She died un- 
married, November 5, 1749, aged 66. 

" In the same pious confidence, beside her friend and sister, 
here sleep the remains of Dorothea Gray, widow, the careful 
and tender mother of many children, one of whom alone had 
the misfortune to survive her. She died March 11, 1753, 
aged 67." 

To my surprise, the poet's name does not appear on the 
slab, but a late vicar placed on the church wall, directly 
opposite the tomb, a white marble tablet, bearing the follow- 
ing suitable words : — 

" Opposite to this stone, beneath the same tomb upon which 
he has so feelingly recorded his grief for the loss of a beloved 
parent, are deposited the remains of Thomas Gray, the author 
of the ' Eleg}^ written in a Country Churchyard/ &c. He 
was buried August 6, 1771." 

Near the path traversed by the parishioners in their way 
to the church, the late John Penn erected a handsome monu- 
ment in honour of Gray, " among the scenery celebrated by 
the great lyrical and elegiac poet." It is railed in, and it 
also is in full view from the mansion-house. On one of the 
panels may still be read the following lines selected from the 
exquisitely beautiful ode of Gray on Eton College, whose 
classical haunts are within view : — 

" Ye distant spires, ye antique towers, 
That crown the watery glade. 
Ah, happy hills ! ah, pleasing shade ! 

Ah, scenes beloved in vain ! 
Where once my careless childhood strayed, 
A stranger yet to pain ; 



92 ENGLAND. 

1 feel the gales that from ye blow 
A momentary bliss bestow !" 

I returned to the great library -room of Stoke mansion, with 
feeling's of admiration for the scene, and of respect for the 
mind that planned and executed so appropriate, so chaste a 
tribute to the poet, and took from the well-filled shelves the 
various editions of Gray's works ; the first opened at the Ode 
on Eton, and in view of the monument and of the distant 
spires of Eton College I read with a zest that I never expe- 
rienced before in its perusal, one of the most finished and 
thoughtful poems ever penned. 

No visiter to Windsor Castle should omit, before leaving 
the Slough station, to walk over to " Gray's Church ;" there 
is no one to disturb his meditations ; — no sixpence demanded 
or received, for the pilgrim meets no guide with set speech, 
to disturb his thoughts ; the scene tells its own story, and it 
reads to every thinking mind a lesson not soon forgotten. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LXI. 



London. 



Mr. Charles Dickens — His popularity — His income — His intimates — 
His home — His purposes— His American book — Mr. Willis — Sir E. 
L. Bulwer — His lady — The water-cure — Mr. James — Novels by 
threes and fours — His history — Novels dictated — Mrs. Gore — "Va- 
thek" Beckford papers — Agathonia — A mystifier and the most volu- 
minous female writer — A dasher — Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Hunt — Sir 
Percy Byssche Shelley — His generosity — Mrs. Shelley. 

You ask about so many people ! your " lastly" shall come 
first in my letter — about Mr. Dickens ; and you shall hear 
all I know and have been able to pick up. A " lastly" from 



'ENGLAND. 93 

you, forsooth, for the writer who gets more ears and eyes, 
(and I will boldly say, hearts^) than all the tribe you inquire 
about put together ! What is it you want to know about him ? 
His income ? Ask " Punch," the proprietors of which have 
made an arrangement to secure all his future productions — 
on terms which are " things to dream of, not to tell." His 
intimates 1 Let me refer you to Mr. Maclise, the brilliant 
Irish artist — or to Mr. Macready — or to Mr. Forster of the 
Examiner, the dramatic critic, and the historian of Cromwell's 
times, assuring you, however, on the united testimony of 
intimates and strangers, that never was any author so largely 
and suddenly courted, so utterly clear of the follies of lionism, 
or the worse than folly of leaving his old friends for new ones. 
His home ) Ah that is too happy a composition of cheerful wife 
and happy children, by all testimony, to admit of description. 
His purposes T A book on Italy, as some had taken for grant- 
ed ; his letters thence are perhaps the most pictorial things 
he has done. Mind — in saying clever things of Mr. Dickens, * 
I am not ranging myself on his side as an American traveller. 
His book on that great subject, so little understood in England, 
vexed all the thinking people here ; and, like other vexatious ^ 
things, is w^ell forgotten at home, where they think the of- 
fence might a little lie with those who invited one so impres- 
sible by the ridiculous, to assume the office of censor, and j> 
one too impassionate in his enthusiasms to hold the scale as 
judge. It has always appeared to me that the London ladies 
were more answerable for our Mr. Willis's revelations than 
his own indiscretion " prepense." 

The whereabouts of a round dozen of living authors is not 
to be discovered in a day ; questioning people will not always 
produce the information you want. I was curious myself 
about Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer. His lady — the lady so 
passionately addressed in the latest chapters of the " Disown- 
ed" — has in those rabid and vulgar novels of hers, " Chevely," 
and " The Memoirs of a Muscovite," acquainted the world 



94 ENGLAND. 

with their disunion. Since the Baronet has come to his 
inheritance of Knebworth, a rich property with a stately old 
manor house, now in progress of very magnificent repairs, he 
has published nothing, save the " Life of Schiller," prefixed 
to the translations of the German's minor poems — retiring it 
seems into care for his health, which has been severely 
shattered, but is now, I hear, entirely renovated by the water- 
cure. The public may hope it will not prove that the sensi- 
tiveness to criticism which his prefaces display, has deprived 
readers of one of their most versatile authors. Just now he 
can be ill spared, whether as a novelist, or historian, or an 
essayist, in that mixed French and English style, which 
catches the light reader too often to his injury, but can also 
hold the deep thinker. 

You would know about Mr. James ? He still " holds the 
even tenor of his way" — if ever man did — producing his 
novels by threes and fours, and of a symmetry and complete- 
ness which is absolutely wonderful, the number and the regu- 
larity of their appearance considered. He has the reputation 
of being one of the most gentlemanly and best-natured of the 
fraternity ; with a handsome fortune inherited from his father 
— (the celebrated fever physician of George the Fourth's 
reign — James's fever powders we all know)— and surrounded 
by an attached family, the incidents of his life, I take it, are 
to be found in this amazing romantic offspring. 1 am told by 
so many, that I believe it, they are dictated to a couple of 
amanuenses at once. 

In fertility he has but one compeer, past or present — JMrs. 
Gore : and according to the fitness of things, the two, as Sir 
Hugh Tyrold says in Miss Burney's " Camilla" — ought to 
have " married together" — save that the gentleman is a safe 
and easy-going conservative, and the lady a brilliant radical. 
By the way, I may add, it has been whispered that she has 
come into possession of some of the late Mr. Beckford's 
(Vathek Beckford) note-books or papers ; to which the little 



ENGLAND. 95 

novel of Agathonia is ascribed ; whether true or false, she is 
known to be a sufficiently consummate mistress of the easy 
art of mystification, to make one believe that the very report 
may have been countenanced, if not set on foot by herself, in 
order to give a spice of variety to productions, the number of 
which must make them interfere with each other ; she is in 
every sense of the word the most voluminous of all the present 
literary ladies ; has been, they all say, a great beauty, and is 
still what they call a dasher. The sauciest thing said of any 
given person in any given drawing-room, may, they tell you, 
nine times out of ten, claim Mrs. Gore for its mother, and 
she herself would be foremost to enjoy, where others might 
protest against such a character. " Better bitter wit," says 
Claribel in the farce, "than wit which is no wit at all." 

And now by way of replying to your general inquiries 
about living authors, it is a pleasure to mention a fact honoura- 
ble and heart-warming. This is the liberal annuity settled 
upon Mr. and Mrs. Leigh Hunt, during their joint lives, by 
the present Sir Percy Shelley, son of the poet, who has recently 
succeeded to the family property and the title, by the death 
of his grandfather Sir Timothy — a property which the poet, 
alas, like so many heirs at law here, did not live to touch. 
The author of " Rimini," it vfill be recollected, has, during 
many of his strange confessions and reminiscences, wailed 
over the death of the author of " Prometheus unbound," as a 
calamity cutting short much pecuniary assistance which had 
been promised him. (It should be said, in passing, that no 
one has experienced the liberality of his literary brethren so 
long and so largely as Mr. Leigh Hunt.) The present Baronet 
then, is paying a noble tribute to his father's memory by 
working out this unfulfilled intention. Most pleasant is it to 
hear and know of the sunshine which this late-arrived pros- 
perity has shed around Mrs. Shelley, whose health has long 
been delicate— and the difficulties of her widowhood, during 
wliich she was almost exclusively thrown upon her literary 



% 



96 ENGLAND. 

resources for the education of her son — great and wasting 
they are said to have been, — but she is now at last repaid, and 
with a confidence and affectionate gratitude which it does 
the heart good even to hear of in this cold world of ours. 

Yours, &,c. 



LETTER LXII. 

London. 

The Duke of Wellington — Anecdote — The Italian opera — The Queen 
its patron — She is a musician — Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — 
The Duke of Wellington and the Marchioness of Douro — The chief 
of Waterloo a musical amateur — Sleeps at the opera — The Duke of 
Cambridge at church — Women of fashion gamble in railroad stocks — 
Lady Ailesbury — Mrs. Opie — Mrs. Ellis — Her success not warranted 
— Mrs. Napier's "Woman's rights" — A morning of deer-shooting— 
Batlue — Murder of a buck — Keepers — Trophy. 

As you probably know, the Duke of Wellington is by uni- 
versal consent " The Duke," throughout all London. He is 
growing old, but is nevertheless still active — rides much on 
horseback, attends the House of Lords, and mounts his horse 
amid the crowd with energy. The other day he was on foot, 
and the driver of a cart going at a pace not allowed by law, 
came near running over him. The Duke prosecuted the 
man, as he declared, for example's sake, convicted him, and 
then paid the fine. 

The Italian opera rejoices in royal patronage to an unpre- 
cedented degree. The Queen (who really, I am informed, 
sings well, all 'prestige laid by, and has taken lessons both of 
Lablache and Costa), never fails to be seen there once a week, 
and is fond of commanding operas ; and otherwise marking 
the direct interest she takes in the establishment. Hard by 



ENGLAND. 97 

may be seen the Queen Dowager and the Duke and Duchess 
of Cambridge ; these also, it is said, listen with understanding, 
and the sight of them is wonderfully attractive to the country 
ladies and gentlemen, who are squeezed of many an extra 
guinea for the privilege of overlooking the enjoyment of the 
great ones of the earth. Close by, underneath the Queen's 
box, is to be seen on many nights of every season, as fair a 
contrast of " crabbed age and youth," fame and beauty, as the 
world has to show, in the Duke of Wellington and his 
daughter-in-law, the Marchioness of Douro. The chief of 
Waterloo, too, is a distinguished musical amateur, of a musical 
family — though age and deafness have, alas, dulled the sense 
of pleasure, and he may be seen dreaming through the whole 
evening, they say, with drooped head, and eye so lack-lustre, 
that it requires an effort of faith or memory to couple him 
with victories which at once overset and tranquillized 
Europe. 

As to the Duke of Cambridge ; let me put in an anecdote 
before the whirl of London has driven it out of my memory. 
The Duke visits the opera probably more frequently than the 
church; he went to the latter the other day, and when the 
clergyman said, "Let us pray," the duke, who talks most 
loudly when listening the most attentively, enunciated, to 
the surprise of his neighbours, most audibly " By all means .'" 

No gambler like a woman of fashion ; Lady Ailesbury is 
declared to have made thirty thousand pounds by buying and 
selling shares in railroads ; the days are gone when peeresses 
were brought up before magistrates for keeping faro tables, 
but they still manage to bet at Newmarket and Ascot, and to 
lend protection to projectors to an amount little suspected by 
the million. I was witness to fourteen guineas being paid (at 
a bookstore, where these things are merchandise,) for opera 
tickets to a box to hold four persons, — and it is a trait of the 
times, that the clerk, as he was marking off the tickets in his 
book, said aside to the shop-boy — " For some of these railroad 
people .'" Since, wot ye, London has never been so crammed 

VOL. II. 9 



98 - ENGLAND. 

with money and with company as in 1845 — save, perhaps, in 
the coronation year ; owing to the sudden and immense ex- 
tension of the railway speculation. 

As I have by chance " tapped" the question about the ladies, 
I will continue my epistle by satisfying you as far as I am 
able about two — the one a ci-devant celebrity — (for who has 
not heard of the " Father and Daughter" of Mrs. Opie?) — 
the other a contemporary author, now more popular and on 
far smaller means — Mrs. Ellis ; there is a sort of Irish link 
between the two in the fact that the first joined the Society of 
Friends some years ago, and that the latter when she laid by 
her maiden name of Sarah Stickney, left that same respecta- 
ble body. 

Mrs. Opie is occasionally seen in London, and has not with 
her new faith, learned to distrust her old playfellows, which 
(especially in the lifetime of her husband, the Royal Acade- 
mician) were painters, poets, and the like. 

It is asserted in conversation, that Mrs. Opie's genial face 
and smart satin gowns, have given the impression to persons 
not belonging to the Society of Friends, that she is a little 
less consistent than formerly in her appearance ; but I am 
assured by those who know her well, that this is an error. If 
she converses about this artist's picture, or the other lady's 
diamonds, it must be remembered, her education has been 
somewhat different from that of her new associates. 

She is accused, too, of having begun to issue a collected 
edition of her early novels ; the fact will probably turn out to 
be, that the copyright having expired, some publisher has 
taken it upon himself to do so; an act oi piracy, as they term 
it in England when speaking of our reprints in America, 
which numerous publishers are ready enough to perform, as 
soon as the law will allow. 

A far different personage is Mrs. Ellis — she is in the full 
possession of that prodigious resolution to do good and to get 
on, which never fail to prove their own fulfilment. She is a 
person of great energy. Self-educated, (as she has some- 



ENGLAND. 99 

where told us,) and the daughter of a Yorkshire farmer, she 
nevertheless, I am assured, managed to make herself a most 
notable amateur artist long ere the pen was thought of; and 
to model, and etch, and paint miniatures, and knit black silk 
stockings ; and was in those days, they say, an earnest, en- 
thusiastic, interesting woman — handsome too, — a handsome 
likeness, says one of my friends who knew them both, of poor 
Miss Jewsbury. 

In these female handiworks, I am indolent enough to think, 
lay her real talents. But the world of dissenters seems to 
imagine otherwise, and her " Wives and Mothers" and 
" Daughters," and " Women of England" go through edition 
after edition, while Mrs. Napier's " Woman's Rights and 
Duties" — a really distinguished book, — circulates with a- 
slowness which would be painful did one not recollect, that 
one thought disseminated among half a dozen thinkers, is 
worth millions of words set a rolling by people who can do 
nothing better, and know not what they do. 

And now, having treated you to some gossip, let me amuse 
you with a morning of deer-shooting in a gentleman's five 
hundred acre park. Tame though it be, it has novelty, at all 
events, to recommend it. By appointment of my host over 
night, the keepers were informed that sport was required ; 
we. rose at six, took our guns, and sallied forth on a fine 
morning, when the sun deigned to show his face for a few 
hours ; the keepers were in attendance, one on horseback, 
one on foot, and a third to drive a farm- cart about the park, 
to the presence of which the deer being accustomed, they are 
less likely to fly from, than from a man openly displaying a 
gun. We selected a five year old buck, which v/as fat and 
had lived long enough ; he was in company with about twenty 
others, and the difiiculty of the chase consisted in getting 
him to show his head in such a position as to avoid the dan- 
ger of wounding the others of the herd. 

We frequently succeeded in getting sufficiently near to 
have accomplished our deadly errand, but our selected mark 



100 ENGLAND. 

baffled, by his mode of mixing in with the others, several 
attempts at a good range ; one or two shots were expended 
in vain, and the deer became alarmed ; we followed them 
thus for hours, till at length they stood near one of the park 
palings ; going behind these, where we were not observed, 
the head keeper and myself stealthily got within a proper 
distance ; the old buck demeaned himself properly, and the 
death-dealing blow was sent through his neck ; he instantly 
fell ; the keeper on horseback rode up and cut his poor throat 
from ear to ear ; the cart received his warm carcass, and all 
was over. I confess it seemed very like murder in the first 
degree, but it was a novelty and to be once done, as an 
example of the manner of conducting the battue, for which 
Prince Albert is rather uncomfortably celebrated just now. 

When fresh portions of the poor buck made their appear- 
ance on the table next day, I confess to too great tender- 
heartedness to be able to eat my victim. The saddle Vv^as 
sent as the tribute of the lord of the manor, to Eton College, 
for the dignitaries at the public dinner, while my portion, the 
head and horns carefully preserved together, are kindly for- 
warded to Liverpool, to be shipped to America, as a trophy 
and a specimen of the fine antlers of a noble fallow deer. 
Pleasant living this ! says 

Yours, &c. 



ENGLAND. 101 



LETTER LXIII. 



London. 



British and Foreign Aid Society — Merle D'Aiibigne ; his speech; his 
persecution by the Pope; his manner and appearance — The Pope 
and railroads — Railroad mania in England ; its great height — Reports 
of directors — Increase of travel and traffic — Reduction of prices and 
consequent increase of profit — Frequent trains — First-class coaches — 
Gepps's Folly — Queen Elizabeth — Nuns. 

I OMITTED to mention in its proper place, the meeting of 
the " British and Foreign Aid Society," for the assistance of 
poor Protestants at home and on the Continent From the 
Report it appeared that many Roman Catholics in Europe 
had of late embraced Protestant principles, and the hope was 
held out that a great work was begun. The reading of 
copies of the Scriptures, distributed by the Bible Society, 
and the preaching of Protestant ministers, had convinced 
many, and numbers, it was said, have openly deserted Ro- 
manism. The assistance of English Protestants in the great 
contest between Papacy and a reformed faith, was urged. 

A deputation of Protestant ministers from the Continent 
attended, among whom was J. Merle D'Aubigne, who ad- 
dressed the meeting in somewhat broken English, but elo- 
quently — giving an interesting account of some late Italian 
and Spanish converts to Protestant principles ; and recounting 
Geneva's former noble call in the time of Calvin, and the 
increasing Roman power since Napoleon's time, when dis- 
tricts were added to it, so as to make it probable that there 
will ere long be a majority of Roman Catholics ; — he had 
wept over his city as this took place, at the time when he 

9* 



102 ENGLAND. 

was a young- student, but now he hoped for a brighter day iri 
the revival of pure religion. He said that the Pope had dis- 
tinguished him by prohibiting his History, in a late publica- 
tion against the circulation of the Bible ; notwithstanding 
which, a translation of it into Italian would shortly be com- 
pleted. He urged that his hearers should put their trust in 
God, and not in man, in the struggle against Papacy. His 
manner and matter were impressive, and his appearance dig- 
nified and interesting; — one could easily believe, that the 
great historian of the Reformation, the author, and the Pro- 
testant minister of Geneva, stood before us, even had we not 
expected to see him face to face. 

As another evidence of the disposition of Rome to keep 
knowledge and improvement-from the people, it is true that 
the Pope has refused all overtures for allowing railroads to 
enter his dominions ; knowledge might make them too wise 
for the present mode of government. 

The railroad mania is at its height here ; in a densely 
populated country like England, most of the roads pay good 
dividends; consequently routes and new companies are urged 
upon Parliament, with a pertinacity and force of interest 
that is alarming to every body who has valuable land to be 
cut up ; gambling in shares is carried on to infatuation ; sud- 
den riches have visited thousands; ladies of rank have turned 
speculators, as in the time of Law's Mississippi Scheme. 
There is some foundation for the story (and the fun made of 
it) by Punch, of a liveried servant having pocketed some 
hundreds of thousands of pounds by speculating in his mas- 
ter's name and on his credit. While all this is in progress, 
the Grand Junction Railway Company state in their half- 
yearly report, that the number of passengers has increased 
by ninety thousand five hundred, and the goods by twenty- 
two thousand tons ; and that the principal increase has been 
in the local traffic. The money increase has been sixty 
thousand dollars in the passenger department, and ninety 
thousand in the goods. On the Grand Junction, the fares 



ENGLAND. 103 

have been twice reduced within a few months, and additional 
accommodation afforded. The Liverpool and Manchester 
directors testify to the same facts, and state that the passen- 
ger traffic has largely increased, and that the introduction of 
third class and cheap excursion trains has added considerably 
to the gross receipts. The North Union, Chester, Midland, 
Grand Junction, and Liverpool and Manchester, all state 
their intentions to provide further accommodation ; all this is 
prompted by the working of practical experience. The Lon- 
don and Brighton have been moving to the same ends. The 
Grand Junction's new reduction of fares, brings them to the 
following rates : — Select and express trains, 2id. per mile ; 
second class, l^d. ; third class, Id. The Eastern Counties 
have also made large reductions, as well as the Southeastern 
from London to Dover. Day tickets are also to be issued, 
and season tickets. 

All this should teach a lesson to many of our railroad 
managers, who seem perfectly contented if they can collect 
the fares of people who B.re forced by business or other neces- 
sity to travel, offering no kind of inducements, such as a little 
civility and attention to the comfort of their customers; these 
might be doubled and trebled if proper attention was paid, 
and a little thought given to the practical working of matters 
in which human feelings are as much to be considered as the 
price of locomotives or coal. An American company with a 
charter and a monopoly, demeans itself, through its agents 
sometimes, as if all that was done, was a favour. 

By running trains more frequently than is thought of in 
America, additional facilities are gained without any crowd ; 
and additional inducements, it is seen above, are offered. On 
many lines of importance, there are trains leaving all day, 
as oflen as three or four times in every hour. That the 
profit of the New York and Philadelphia lines would be 
increased if they offered comfort and convenience of hours, 
and kept their prices to those agreed upon in the original 
charter, no one can doubt. The sick and the "very par- 



104 ENGLAND. 

ticular" would gladly pay an additional sum for the certainty 
of civility and the comfort of the absence of a crowd ; first 
class conveyances would be patronised and prove profitable in 
America. 

My letters are growing " heterogeneously miscellaneous," 
as a member of the Ohio legislature remarked of a brother's 
speech ; " so let it be," was the reply : " a man who confines 
himself to one set of ideas, is not fit to legislate for an Ame- 
rican community." Let me copy then a mem. made on a 
little excursion in Essex. 

There is to be seen at Chelmsford, the county town of 
Essex, a row of comfortable houses bearing the inscription, 
" Gepps's Folly." Their history is curious, as connected with 
the great Establishment Question. Some years since, as 
may be familiar to many of my readers, a Dissenter, named 
Thorogood, having declined the payment of the customary 
Church of England demands, was brought before the Eccle- 
siastical Court — and this case was made the trial of strength 
between the Establishment and its opposers. Thorogood was 
supported by the Dissenters, considered as their champion, 
and encouraged to persevere in resisting the demands. After 
an imprisonment of about two years, he was set free ; and as 
his small business had of course suffered from his absence, he 
was presented on his release with a generous subscription : 
with this he built a row of houses — retaliating in an unchris- 
tian manner upon his prosecutor Gepps, by inscribing on them 
" Gepps's Folly." 

In this county, so thronged with interesting associations, 
is the " New Hall," one of the royal residences of Henry 
VIIT., and for some time the home of his daughter, the Prin- 
cess Mary. It was confiscated from George Buckingham, 
and was said to have been purchased of the Parliament by 
Cromwell for five shillings, when it was valued at £1300. 
General Monk resided here. In front are Queen Elizabeth's 
arms, with the inscription (translated) : 



ENGLAND. 105 

" On earth, the pious, wise Queen — 
In heaven, the shining star of piety ; 
A virgin, noble, learned, divine — 
Willy, chaste, and beauteous." 

How could royalty in the profane, homely Queen, blind to so 
glaring a falsehood 1 

A community of nuns, of the order of the " Holy Sepul- 
chre," who were driven from Liege, during the disastrous 
occurrences of the French Revolution, sought here a peaceful 
retreat; and beside their religious occupations, are usefully 
engaged in superintending the education of a limited number 
of young ladies. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LXIV. 

London. 

Life insurance — Its importance — Much practised— Hailstorm Insurance 
Company— Patronage of the fine arts — Parliamentary appropriations 
— DeathofEarlGrey— Other noblemen— Farming in England— Crops 
— Stock — Sales — Tenant farmers— A specimen — His dwelling and 
establishment — Rural England — Degradation of the working class — 
Razor-strop farmer — Theoretical agriculture expensive. 

No people on the face of the earth are so provident for the 
future as the English ; I allude particularly to their system, 
generally adopted, of life insurance, which is almost as com- 
monly in practice as insurance against fire. Nearly all 
classes protect themselves by this provident foresight against 
the some time certain loss of the individual member of the 
family upon whose life they are dependent for support ; his 
or her death thus makes little difference in their income or 
mode of life. They build for perpetuity, well knowing that 



106 ENGLAND. 

others are to come after them, and they have seen too many 
of the advantag-es resulting- from life insurance, and too much 
distress caused by its omission, to neglect this first of duties 
for their families. London seems full of the various societies 
chartered to shower blessings on the bereaved ; it has com- 
panies for particular classes, — the clergy — the army and navy, 
&c., and even the Society of Friends, the lives of whose 
members are said-with truth to be " better" than an average, 
have their own insurance company. 

Apropos of insurance : — several great storms of hail of late 
years having" destroyed the hopes of the farmers in some 
counties, there is actually a " Hailstorm Insurance Company," 
whose sign I often encounter in the " city ;" its charter 
embraces also life risks. The subject of life insurance is 
scarcely sufficiently understood in America to make the 
practice as common as it ought to be and will be, as we grow 
wiser and more numerous. 

Though complaints have been made from time to time of a 
want of patronage of the fine arts, it must be confessed that, 
contrasted witli our own, the British government is the least 
to be abused on this topic. The House of Commons has just 
voted two hundred and sixty thousand dollars for additional 
rooms to the already enormous British Museum, and thirty- 
five thousand for the purchase of certain collections ; eight 
thousand have been voted for the National Gallery, and fifty 
thousand for a geological survey ; thirty thousand for magnetic 
observations at home and abroad ; eight thousand for monu- 
ments to Lord de Saumarez and Sir Sidney Smith ; ninety 
thousand for harbours of refuge from storms, and ten thousand 
dollars towards the expenses of the statues of Hampden and 
the Earl of Clarendon. These are incidental matters of no 
great amount, but they will serve to show you what kind of 
objects are included in the policy of the government. 

Death has been at work among the great since I arrived ; 
Earl Grey has died at the age of 82 ; — he was the premier 
who carried the Reform Bill ; Viscount Canterbury, too, has 



ENGLAND. 107 

paid the debt of nature ; Lady Blessington is the sister of his 
wife ; Lord Bateman is a third in the peerage ; both the 
latter had attained the ages of sixty-six — both died of apo- 
plexy, with which they were suddenly seized whilst rapidly 
travelling by railroad cars. It is stated on high medical 
authority, that this rapid giddy motion is dangerous where a 
disposition to the attack previously exists. 

Farming in England is very different from farming in the 
United States. The same amount of capital which in Ame- 
rica enables a man to live independently, enjoying with some 
certainty the fruits of his labour upon his own property, in 
England only places him in the situation of a tenant-farmer, 
dependent upon the landlord for a continuance of his home. 
For each acre that he rents he is expected to have from 
seven to ten pounds to invest in labour, implements, and ma- 
nure, so that a farmer of a few thousand pounds capital, in 
place of purchasing land, which is high-priced and rarely 
sold, prefers investing it in cultivating several hundred acres • 
for landed property returns but about three per cent, to its 
landlord, while the practical tenant-farmer may realize ten 
per cent, on his capital invested. 

The crops that would strike an American farmer as new, 
are the fields of peas and beans for the winter food of the 
stock, and the luxuriant Lucerne grass, as yet not fully intro- 
duced at home. Barley is often sown after a fallow of fifteen 
months ; the crop is gathered after an outlay of ten pounds 
an acre, including the rents and tithes since the last harvest 
on the ground, and the cost of the labour expended in the re- 
peated ploughing and harrowing. The stock is beautiful and 
very productive. The value of three thousand pounds ster- 
ling, sold off* a farm of 400 acres in one year, seems a large 
sum — it would purchase many a rich acre in our Great West. 
The farmer in this thickly settled country is much like a 
merchant ; he has more of the refinements of city life about 
him than our agricultural friends ; his numerous labourers 
live at their own homes, and his kitchen family is perhaps 



108 ENGLAND. 

composed of his house-servants only, with a boy to help them, 
and to harness his small pony chaise, which, by the way, often 
has his name and residence painted upon it, in order to avoid 
the tax on vehicles not so marked. 

As a characteristic specimen of the class, I might mention 
one whose kind hospitality my son experienced. Bluflf, and 
even rough in manner, he atoned by his sincerity for an un- 
prepossessing address. He resides with English comfort in 
a large house, partly surrounded by a moat, now filled with 
water, which was anciently a part of the fortifications of a 
bishop's palace on this spot ; it has been his home for twenty- 
three years ; possessed of a good property, he rents the farm 
of four hundred acres. Go with him over it, and see the evi- 
dences of a great business in the three sets of farm buildings 
in different parts, the vast quantities of grain, and the great 
green crops, the number of plough horses, and their immense 
size, the sleek fatted cattle, the fine flocks of sheep, and the 
number of labourers, among whom were some women in the 
field — and return with him to his pleasant family to see the 
fruits of such farming in the comfortable home and opportu- 
nities of beneficence and mental cultivation which it affords 
them ! Ride with him through the narrow- winding lanes, 
lined with well-trimmed hedges, the richly-cultivated country, 
and enjoy the perfection of rural England, with uncut crops, 
and growing in the luxuriant verdure of a rainy summer. 

But there is another side to the picture, in sad contrast to 
the beautiful scenery, the rich landlord, and the comfortable 
tenant. The labouring class are, many of them, in a state of 
degradation difficult to conceive in a country where there is 
such an amount of refinement, cultivation, and active philan- 
thropy. But I would willingly draw the curtain over such a 
picture; its harrowing details have been described by an 
abler pen. 

A London razor-strop and fancy merchant, named Mechi, 
has lately purchased an estate in the country, and has under- 
taken from books to teach his Essex neighbours how to farm. 



ENGLAND. 109 

He rides his hobby with energy, laying- out large sums in 
new manures and experiments. Rarely visiting it, he farms 
by theory from London, sending down his orders to a foreman, 
who perseveringly tries the new-fangled instruments, the 
manures that ought to make fine crops, and the new plans for 
electrifying vegetation by wires passing around the field ; in 
showing which the old foreman shrewdly remarks that he 
knows what nourishes him, — good ale and hearty meals ; but 
he does not see how naked wires feed the plants much. Mechi 
publishes much about his model farm and agricultural ex- 
periments, but farming from a smoky counting-house is not 
the thing, and he has the laugh or jealousy of the practical 
plodding ones — the common fate too of those in advance of their 
age. Whether Mechi is in advance I am not practical enough 
to decide — his farming is very expensive, at least. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LXV. 

London. 

Madame Tussaud's exhibition; its attractions — Zoological Gardens; as 
a garden — The donkey employed ; his usefulness — Should be intro- 
duced into America — Distances in London — The Glaciariura not to 
be found — Polytechnic institution — Its nature — National Gallery — 
Hampton Court — Pictures—Fountains in Trafalgar Square — Nelson 
memorial — Walking advertisements — "Down's hat-guards." 

Among the regular round of lions visited by strangers, in 
the great Babel London, is IMadame Tussaud's exhibition of 
human figures. You appear to enter a room of gentlemen 
and ladies. One sits at a desk, near the door, as if to take 
your names ; near him, a beautifiil lady apparently reclines 
asleep, with all the appearance of breathing regularly ; — her 
chest heaves as naturally as you could desire ; a gentleman 

VOL. II. 10 



110 ENGLAND. 

on the bench where the visiters sit, seems to be interested in 
looking at the rest, for he moves his head and eyes ; around 
are groups, as if in conversation — and at one's elbow stands a 
lady, in an old black bonnet. What is your surprise, in find- 
ing that all these figures, which are so natural that one is al- 
most ready to accost them, are artificial ! — the work of the 
lady of whom the figure in the black bonnet is a likeness. It 
is difficult sometimes to know which are living and which ar- 
tificial. A perplexed friend of ours, accosted one with the 
request to tell him whether she was alive or not ! A man sat 
still for a long time and passed himself off" for wax, and al- 
though his breathing and winking could be seen, yet it was 
thought to be another admirable imitation. 

Round the room are many wax representations of indivi- 
duals distinguished in history or literature ; among them, the 
commanding figure of Washington, Swedenborg's singularly 
earnest countenance, and many of the leading public charac- 
ters of the present century — including the late sovereigns, 
Prince Albert, &c., &c. There is one group particularly 
worthy of admiration ; that of John Knox reproving Mary 
Queen of Scots. The sternness of the Reformer, and the 
meek patience of the beautiful Queen, were very finely ex- 
pressed. It was probably meant for the scene of the inter- 
view which the Calvinists feared so much for their leader, 
but in which he so boldly inveighed against her marriage with 
the papist Earl of Darnley. 

A coronation robe is among the objects here exhibited ; and 
in adjoining rooms are Napoleon's chair, camp-bed, a stain of 
his blood upon a sheet, and his worn travelling-carriage ; into 
which last, like other people great and small, you enter and 
seat yourselves ; are shown his comfortable arrangements for 
resting by opening a sort of closet in front, and connecting it 
by a shelf with the back-seat so as to form a pretty comfort- 
able couch, long enough for one of the Emperor's size ; — you 
get out again with the feeling of having come somewhat into 
contact with the Conqueror. Without having any great fond- 



ENGLAND. Ill 

ness for wax-works, which in America have been degraded 
by inferior representations, it must be admitted that a good 
thing of the kind, like Madame Tussaud's, should receive a 
passing visit from a stranger in London. She has been very- 
successful, and is constantly producing novelties ; her last, is 
a capital likeness of the young Prince of Wales, which is 
now placarded every where in the London streets. 

Of the Zoological Gardens I had formed too exalted an 
idea ; perhaps, too, the sight of noble animals in confinement, 
is naturally painful ; as a garden, the place is well enough, 
and much is done to make the prisoners comfortable. The 
bears get plenty of cake for climbing up a long pole ; the 
monkeys chatter and frolic as much as one could wish — while 
the elephants bathe in a miniature lake and look sulky, and 
the cameleopards have a high-roofed stable ; but notwith- 
standing the efforts of the projectors to imitate their natural 
haunts, the garden is to me a dull place. One hint obtained 
here may be useful in America : the donkey is employed to 
drag the rollers over the gravel- walks; he is too light to make 
more impression on the gravel, than the roller will obliterate. 
This useful little animal is employed in Europe in various 
ways to great advantage; his introduction with us is one of 
the things we have yet to learn ; his appetite is easily satis- 
fied, requiring less than a large dog ; his labour, even as a 
burden-carrier, would well repay his importation ; he pulls 
well in a small cart, and in this is most useful in cities to 
carry marketing ; he would take the whole produce of a small 
kitchen-garden, as well as a horse, while his cost and main- 
tenance would be a very trifle. To the poor man he would 
prove in America an admirable help, not dainty as to the 
quantity or the quality of his food. 

In Philadelphia, your good citizens talk of " squares" when 
they speak of distances; in London it is miles; they tell you 
such a place is four miles from " the Bank ;" another favourite 
mode is to measure by minutes — as ten minutes' walk, which 
means many of your " squares." At night one is puzzled to 



112 E N GL AND. 

wind one's way to a given place three or four miles off; if an 
omnibus is not running in the direction, a cab must be resorted 
to, for the people, though very civil in imparting information 
as far as they can, are totally ignorant of changes which may 
have occurred in a distant neighbourhood, though that change 
may have been of long standing. 

An instance in point : — Last evening some of us Americans, 
who had heard much of the Glaciarium, or artificial skating 
pond, determined to hunt it up ; several Englishmen, in their 
own opinion, thoroughly acquainted with London, gave us the 
direction ; away we sallied, and after many, many inquiriesj 
we pounced upon the place ; it was a livery stable, and had 
been so employed for nearly two years ! the Glaciarium was 
long since defunct, but London was not aware of it. 

We lost nearly the whole evening, having only time to peep 
in at the Polytechnic Institution in Regent Street, see a lady 
descend in the diving bell with a parasol over her head, and 
come up with a little deafness, but perfectly dry. Here lec- 
tures on mechanics are regularly delivered, models of ma- 
chinery explained, and various information imparted. The 
atmospheric railway is also shown in a working model ; ladies 
wonder, children gape, some are entertained, and I dare say 
many learn a little. Various commodities are sold in the build- 
ing ; you may buy a vegetable ivory-nut, or a magnifying 
glass half the size of a sixpence, so powerful as to exhibit 
the insensible perspiration of the body like small rivers, and 
mites in cheese, or the animals on a fig of the size of rabbits. 
The place is made attractive, and even amusement is sought 
for. The Adelaide Gallery is something of the same kind. 

The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square is an attempt of 
the government to impart to the people a knowledge of the 
fine arts without fee. It is one of the few places in England 
where there is no charge for entrance. There are some fine 
pictures, either presented to the Gallery or purchased. Some 
few rich people have, from their abundance, consigned very 
respectable productions to it, or bequeathed them by will ; 



ENGLAND. 113 

many gems by the old masters prove very attractive. As a 
place of study I found it most useful, taking- gradual lessons 
which will render future descriptions of pictures less tedious 
than in books I have generally heretofore found them. A 
visit to Italy, which I now " hanker after," must be accom- 
plished before my course is nearly completed. 

In all the countries of Europe, a collection of paintings, 
more or less free to public inspection, has long been considered 
essential to national honour. But until the year 1826, the 
English alone had no opportunity of comparing the claims of 
different schools, and of measuring the progress of taste and 
intellect. This want was calculated to perpetuate indifference 
in matters of taste among the people, ignorance and conceit 
among the artists, and presumption in amateurs ; the whole 
community was stigmatized by foreigners as the most tasteless 
in Europe. The establishment of this gallery has done 
much to remedy these complaints, though it is still a very 
inferior thing compared with galleries in many other countries. 
As a collection of the comparative claims of genius, it is 
quite useless. The arrangement is also complained of; his- 
torical pieces, landscapes and portraits, English, Flemish, and 
Italian, being commingled without order or system. This 
want of arrangement and a further confusion in numbering, 
destroy all system. With a limited space and a very limited 
number of specimens, from the old masters, it is, no doubt, 
a difficult task to place them satisfactorily, but some principle, 
leading to a systematic display, should have been adopted. 

With all its faults, the National Gallery has done much 
more good than harm, for it has infused into the middle classes 
some taste. I hold it to be impossible to visit such collections ' 
without an improvement in this particular. If the public 
feel thankful to Lord Liverpool for having formed a National 
Gallery, and allowed the people free access to pictures bought 
with their own money, they have still more reason to be grate- 
ful to those munificent individuals who have given or be- 
queathed valuable pictures to this national exhibition. Among 

10* 



114 ENGLAND. 

them, Sir George Beaumont has bequeathed enough to remind 
every artist of one of the most generous and amiable men 
that ever patronised talent ; his collection shows him to have 
been a man of fine taste. Lord Farnborough, Lord Vernon, 
and Lord Francis Egerton, deserve to have their names handed 
down to posterity, and even across the Atlantic, for their 
noble donations to the cause ; I look upon them as national 
benefactors, for they have thrown one of the means of edu- 
cation within the grasp of the ignorant. A crisis in matters 
of art has occurred in the island ; it is universally acknow- 
ledged that they are no longer to be considered as the exclu- 
sive enjoyment of a few ; that the whole population of the 
kingdom is interested in their prosperity. As education has 
become a necessity to every class of the community, before 
the ignorant can take their proper station as integrals of the 
mass entitled to happiness, so must the fine arts be made sub- 
servient to general education, to the moral and intellectual 
instruction and recreation of the people. 

in the vestibule, the great Waterloo vase claims attention 
more for its size than its beauty. Its history is curious : it is 
composed of three blocks of marble, originally selected by 
Napoleon to celebrate his own victories, and was to have 
been placed in the palace of the King of Rome, then in the 
course of erection in the French capital. On the abdication 
of the Emperor, these blocks were presented to the Prince 
Regent, at the instance of Lord Burghersh, ambassador at 
the court of Florence ; and the Prince, taking up the original 
idea, resolved to dedicate them as a memorial of the victory 
of the allies at Waterloo. 

Westmacott, with national grasping, has confined the design 
to a representation of the British hero attended by his staff, 
and issuing his orders for a charge of cavalry on that memora- 
ble day. Besides this principal design, an allegory was 
adopted, representing the British Monarch seated on the 
throne, to which Europe has retired for protection. Peace, 
with her attendant genii, bearing her appropriate symbols, 



ENGLAND. 115 

presents as a trophy of triumph, the palm branch to the en- 
throned sovereign. The vase is a failure as regards effect, 
and this is heightened by its being badly placed. The sub- 
scription statue of Sir David Wilkie is much more striking, 
as it meets you in a good light at the foot of the first flight of 
stairs. 

In the National Gallery, I first gazed upon a landscape by 
Claude Lorraine ; the collection embraces many. Corregio, 
Michael Angelo, Titian, Guide Reni, Murillo, Tintoretto, 
Guercino, Paul Veronese, Caracci, Poussin, Rubens, Rem- 
brandt, Domenicheno, Vandyck, &c., &c., have each their 
productions frequently brought before your admiring gaze ; 
it was something to do this for the inhabitants of cold Eng- 
land. One step more, and we shall be prepared to give the 
nation the full credit of the change. Let the fine pictures, 
now in the palaces unseen, be brought out and presented to 
the public gaze. There is something preposterous to our 
American eyes in furnishing palaces with such treasures of 
art to be seen by the Queen or King exclusively. Why 
should not these glorious works be brought out for the use of 
the people who own them, and the Queen too might come 
and see them] Gradually a little light is breaking in upon 
the enslaved people ; a step at a time is taken now and 
then, such as opening Hampton Court, where many gems 
and wonders of the pencil were long locked up in the an- 
tique rooms which the royal family never inhabited. The 
good conduct of the public, now as freely admitted there as 
the French are to Versailles, is a good augury of future 
favours. 

We have been exceedingly delighted with Hampton Court, 
the grounds and pictures especially. The trees are planted 
in the old-fashioned formal style, but nothing can exceed the 
beauty of the long vistas and the greenness of the grass. 
Many of the poorer nobility have apartments at this old- 
fashioned palace, which you are made aware of as you saunter 
about, by a door-plate here and there in the long galleries, of 



116 ENGLAND. 

Lady Somebody, to whose kitchen a leg of mutton has just 
rung- for admittance. 

In the fountain basins are some of the most enormous old 
family gold fishes I have ever seen; they would make a 
respectable appearance at a regular dinner. 

The fountains in Trafalgar Square are justly ridiculed even 
by the Londoners, though they are the best they have ; the 
water tumbles lazily over like a jet from a beer-bottle. The 
Nelson memorial is the redeeming feature of this much-fre- 
quented neighbourhood. 

We have placarded boards advertising shops or theatres in 
some of our American cities ; but it was reserved for this 
overgrown metropolis to do the work w^holesale. We meet 
in every part of London, not a single board perambulating, 
but a whole string of men encased fore and aft with these " ad- 
vertises ;" long gangs of at least a dozen, are organized by 
different tradesmen, museum-ownere, &c., who march just 
outside of the curb-stones, keeping step as they go ; the gro- 
tesqueness of the exhibition of the line, bearing in large 
letters, " Buy Down's Hats," on boards down to their feet, 
when they are driven to a run by a cab or omnibus, never 
fails to create a good laugh from the spectators. It is quite a 
relief to laugh in London, where there is much to perplex, I 
assure you ; and I feel consequently most grateful to Mr. Down ■ 
for the amusement his regiments have often afforded me. 
They have got the name of " Down's hat guards." 

The Chinese Museum has been fitted up in London with 
considerable beauty; a band of music performs nightly ; the 
omnibuses to Hyde Park Corner are labelled "Chinese 
Museum," and they receive considerable patronage from this 
source. , 

Yours, &c. 



ENGLAND. 117 



LETTER LXVI. 

London. 

Politics in England— Causes of the interest taken in them — Will there 
be a revolution ? — Rise of the Whig and Tory parties — Meaning of 
the terras — Long Whig tenure of office — Long Tory tenure of office 
— Catholic emancipation — Tories obliged to resign in 1830 — Reform 
Bill — Rejected by the Lords — Fearful state of the country — Final 
passage of the bill — Subsequent movements of parties— Position of 
the present ministry — Future prospects. 

One of the most absorbing topics of conversation in Eng- 
land, is politics. Here, where the struggle is still going on 
between the aristocratic and democratic principles, it is not 
wonderful that so much interest is attached to the proceedings 
of Parliament. In America there is a class of educated men 
who take no thought for the state, because they believe there 
is no danger to their liberties ; they will take the trouble to 
vote only when urged by a sufficient motive. It is different 
in England. The landholder, whether he be Whig or Tory, 
is directly interested in preserving the laws of primogeniture 
and entail, the system of modified feudality to which he owes 
his influence, and by which his family pride is sustained. On 
the other hand, the manufacturers, the merchants, the la- 
bourers and artisans, long for a new Reform Bill, which will 
relieve them from the enormous taxes now placed upon 
imports, and transfer the burdens of the state to the land- 
owners. The ground upon which these two interests now 



118 ENGLAND. 

contend, is the question of the abolition of the Corn Laws, of 
which more in my next. 

The connexion of church and state in Great Britain and 
Ireland, forms another fruitful source of party violence. The 
Dissenters, including- the Roman Catholics of Ireland, will 
never rest satisfied until they are not only tolerated, but 
placed upon an equal footing with the established church. At 
this moment the rumours of a state provision for the Roman 
Catholic clergy of Ireland, by Sir Robert Peel's government, 
agitate the breasts of millions whose conscientious opinions, 
or whose pecuniary interests are involved in the proposed 
change. These, and many other points, lend an importance 
to every speech in Parliament, every movement of the govern- 
ment, and every demonstration of the popular will. Many, 
both here and in America, predict a bloody revolution, which 
will put a period to the English aristocracy, and bring in a 
republican form of government. But, without asserting, as 
some do, and as many of the English sincerely believe, that 
there is more wisdom in this little island, than all the rest of 
the world put together, I must confess I see no symptoms of 
any such event, at least for a long time to come. The con- 
stitution of England, by a happy combination of the three 
orders of King, Lords, and Commons, contains provisions for its 
own reformation ; and whenever any evils become sufficiently 
glaring to demand a remedy, the influence in Parliament of 
the parties aggrieved, or the fear of the consequences which 
an earnest study of history produces, is sufficient to throw off 
the disease, and restore the state to a healthy action. Add 
to this that the two great parties which, since the Revolution, 
have alternately ruled the state, have always been a check 
upon each other's extravagances, and have eagerly grasped 
at any pretext of mal-administration of the dominant power 
to make political capital for themselves. It has been two 
centuries since there has been a civil war in England, and I 
see no reason why it should not be two centuries more. 

The enormous national debt of England, which is thought 



ENGLAND. 119 

by some on our side of the water, to be the surest sign of an 
approaching- crisis in the affairs of Great Britain, is under- 
stood here to be one of the strongest guarantees of the per- 
manency of the existing state of things. There is hardly a 
householder in the three kingdoms who is not more or less 
personally interested in seeing the interest of the national 
debt punctually paid. Neither Whig nor Tory politicians 
would find favour with their constituents by advocating any 
thing like repudiation, and as to the ability of this rich people 
to sustain the burden, no one who sees the evidences of pro- 
digious wealth which encounter the eye of the traveller in 
London alone, can doubt that, as there is the will, so there is 
the way. There are said to be in private hands, jewels and 
plate, sufficient of themselves to discharge, not only the interest, 
but the principal of this vast incumbrance. But although 
the 3 per cent, consols have tended to consolidate as well the 
nation as the funds, there have never been wanting, since the 
Great Rebellion, causes of party strife. 

The latter part of the reign of Charles II. is an epoch 
wiience may be dated not only the rise of the Whig and Tory 
parties, but also the origin of the principles which they 
severally profess. The last great distinction which had 
divided the nation was the warring factions of the Roundheads 
and Cavaliers, and the convulsion which then took place, 
wrought a change in the national sentiment that has never 
since been effaced. Since that time there has never been a 
republican party in England. 

Charles II. was received with tumultuous loyalty, but his 
project, proved beyond a doubt by modern researches, to in- 
troduce again the Roman Catholic religion, gave rise to an 
opposition to the government, the promoters of which soon 
acquired the name of Whigs ; this term is said to have been 
applied originally to the Covenanters, on account of their 
sour dispositions, the word whig being used by the Scotch 
for the curd into which milk was reduced previous to its being 
converted into cheese. They retorted upon their adversaries 



120 ENGLAND. 

of the high-church and ultra-monarchical party, by the epithet 
Tory, a name applied, according to Roger North, to a set of 
ruffians among the wild Irish, a part being taken for the 
whole, as a nation of Roman Catholics. The two parties 
were in continual rivalry during the reigns of Charles II., 
James II., William and Mary, and Anne, neither getting 
permanently and decidedly the upper hand. On the death of 
the latter in 1714, the Whigs came into power with the 
Hanoverian dynasty, in the person of George I., and they 
kept the reins of government uninterruptedly for forty-eight 
years, when they were turned out of office in 1762, through 
the personal predilections of the new king, George III, for 
the Earl of Bute. 

The Tories kept possession of office for the remarkably long 
period of sixty-eight years, when they were supplanted by 
the Whigs in 1830. In 1829, the bill for Catholic emanci- 
pation was carried by the consent of the leaders of the Tory 
party, but contrary to their often declared principles. This 
concession did not save them, and on the 15th November, 
1830, the administration being left in a minority, the Duke of 
Wellington resigned. 

The new Whig ministry, under Earl Grey, immediately 
brought in the celebrated Reform Bill, which, after another 
general election, passed the House of Commons by the large 
majority of 136 — 367 for, 231 against. The question then 
was, Will the House of Lords venture, in the agitated state 
of the country, to reject it 1 They did reject it by a majority 
of 41. " The House of Commons immediately passed a vote 
of confidence in ministers. The king interposed a short pro- 
rogation, expressly for the purpose that the bill might be 
again introduced. Every method was adopted which could 
palliate the news of the rejection of the bill, and avert the 
thunder storm which threatened. The Whigs were, in a 
great measure, successful ; the lightning did not strike the 
lofty towers of royalty, nor strip off the Gothic fretwork of 
the House of Peers ; but strange sights were seen throughout 



ENGLAND. 121 

the nation ; and a voice was gone forth which told that the 
end was not yet. In London, tens of thousands of men 
marching" in close array, and crowding all the avenues to the 
palace ; the houses of the Tory peers in a constant state of 
siege ; the peers themselves venturing abroad at the danger 
of their life; in the metropolis of a generous people, the Duke 
of Wellington, whose reputation is his country's glory, unable 
to appear without insult and danger ; in the metropolis of a 
people remarkable for their respect to the laws, Lord London- 
derry struck senseless from his horse by a flight of stones ; in 
the country, Nottingham Castle, the ancient possession of the 
Dukes of Newcastle, given to the flames ; Derby in the power 
of a mob, the jail destroyed, the houses of known Tories 
demolished ; the city of Bristol on fire, and Sir Charles 
Wetherell fleeing in disguise by the light of the conflagration 
— men of all grades banded together in unions, pledged, at 
any cost, to obtain parliamentary reform ; a hundred and 
fifty thousand men assembled at Birmingham, and threatening 
to march upon London ; — these were the signs of the times, 
varied by public meetings all over the country, comprehend- 
ing nearly the whole mass of the middle classes, and a large 
portion of the aristocracy, who joined in the expression of 
indignant surprise, that a whisper of a faction should be 
allowed to render abortive the expressed desire of a nation. 
Well was the national sentiment expressed and sustained by 
the press. Morning and evening did these batteries of re- 
form pour forth their incessant fire, and the noise reverberated 
through the kingdom. A very large majority of tite journals 
were in the interest of the Whigs and the people ; but the 
combined power of all the rest of these sinks into insignificance 
when compared with that of the leader of them, a paper 
which, iu the pride of conscious power, had styled itself the 
leading journal of Europe. Never was there so tremendous 
a party engine as the ' Times' at the period of which we are 
now treating, presented. The receptacle of talent sufficient 
to form three brilliant reputations, backed by the admiration 

VOL. II. 11 



122 ENGLAND. 

the applause, the obedience of a nation, it is impossible to 
look upon its career without strong excitement." The above 
was written by a Whig, but the thunders of the Times, as 
you well know, were afterwards turned, by a change of pro- 
prietorship, against the party whose favourite bill it advocated 
in 1830. 

The opposition of the aristocracy was in vain against the 
voice of the people, and on the 4th of June, 1832, the great 
Reform Bill passed the House of Lords, most of the Tories 
absenting themselves. This bill, by the disfranchisement of 
many " rotten boroughs" and the extension of the right of 
suffrage to all householders paying a rent of £10 a year, 
changed so materially the constitution of the House of Com- 
mons, that Blackwood's Magazine, a high-Tory periodical, 
does not hesitate to call it a revolution. Having gained "the 
Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill," the people of 
England seem to have been satisfied with Parliamentary Re- 
form. The Tories, with Sir Robert Peel as prime minister, 
again returned to place for a short time, from December 1834, 
to May 1835, but, being left in a minority in the House of 
Commons, they resigned, and Lord Melbourne became First 
Lord of the Treasury. In 1837, her present " most gracious 
Majesty" ascended the throne. Both William IV. and Vic- 
toria were Whigs, so far as it is consistent for royalty in 
England to countenance faction. 

But the era of long domination by either of the great par- 
ties seems to have passed away, and Sir Robert Peel, as you 
well know, was summoned to form a Cabinet in August 1841. 
The Tories entered upon office this time with a large " work- 
ing majority" in Parliament, which has been sustained, rather 
by the weight of the Premier's personal character, than by a 
consistent carrying oat of Tory principles on the part of the 
present government. The High-Church party have never 
forgiven Sir Robert Peel and the Duke of Wellington for 
yielding to the cry for Catholic emancipation in 1829, and 
they have recently, as all the world knows, encountered a 



ENGLAND. 123 

violent opposition from many of their old supporters, by the 
increase of the Government grant to Maynooth College. The 
consequence is, that the old distinctions of Tory and Whig 
are, in a great measure, lost in the politics of the day, and 
Peel commands votes from both sides of the House. The 
general confidence in his practical wisdom, and the belief 
that he is the best man in England to encounter the peculiar 
difficulties of government at the present day, will, I think 
insure him a long tenure of office. 

But I am exceeding the limits of a letter, and perhaps only 
repeating facts which are as familiar to Americans, such is 
the intercourse between this country and our own, as to my- 
self. Still, I hope the sketch I have given above will convey 
valuable information to some, and stimulate all who read it 
to take an interest in British legislation. I forget who it is 
that says the study of politics, next to the study of theology, 
is the most ennobling pursuit of man, but certain it is, that a 
more interesting one than that of the present movements of 
parties (including the movement party, a large one,) in Eng- 
land, does not exist. To look beneath the eddies of temporary 
change, and see the great current of the English mind, as 
represented in Parliament, moving towards an enfranchise- 
ment of the lower classes, an equality of state favour towards 
different religions, and free trade, is surely a fascinating em- 
ployment. The change is slow, but sure. 

Yours, &c. 



124 ENGLAND. 



LETTER LXVII 



London, 



British Museum — Rosetta Stone, &c. — Colosseum— The ruins— The 
cave — Swiss scenery — The ascending room — The Panorama of Lon- 
don — The Taylors of Norwich — Mrs. Austin — Lady Duff Gordon — 
Miss Kirby — Historical associations. 

I WOULD wish that for once in your life you could walk 
through the British Museum ; you would then have an idea 
of extent in such an institution, and would helieve in num- 
bers of visiters who crowd it at this season to such a degree 
as to make the expedition extremely fatiguing. It contains 
immense suites of apartments, filled with collections of natu- 
ral history, fossils, shells, coins, &c., all well and distinctly 
labelled, chemical specimens, vast Egyptian sarcophagi, sta- 
tues, and marble's ; indeed, so great is the number of Egyp- 
tian mummies and Etruscan vases, that more are probably to 
be seen by the traveller here than in Egypt itself We stop- 
ped with much interest before the Rosetta Stone. 

If I have not fatigued you with London sight-seeing, you 
will not object to a word about the Colosseum, the most im- 
posing exhibition we have visited. In the " ruins," strewed 
artificially about in puzzling positions, no one can be deceived 
or much interested, though they are occasionally natural, 
except for a label requesting visiters not to " injure the 
ruins." A large cave with huge artificial stalactites glit- 
tering in gas light, carries on the illusion very well ; a 
Swiss cottage and a waterfall, with Alpine scenery excel- 
lently imitated, not excepting a glacier and snow-capped 
mountains in the distance, are extremely well displayed consi- 



ENGLAND. 125 

dering" the small space it has been accomplished in. The 
interior basement is a circular room filled with statuary of 
middling merit, often of plaster, but a very showy place. 
In the centre is the ascending room, in which our seated 
party was hoisted by a steam engine to the great Panorama 
of the City of London ; a superb deception, indeed, so admi- 
rably carried out in its details that it was difficult not to 
believe ourselves on St. Paul's Church and looking down on 
an evening scene in the city. The streets and shops were 
lighted with lamps, figures were in the streets, the stars 
twinkling (a little too naturally), the moon so bright and 
natural that I saw a man with his hat oflT and gazing at it 
apparently with some emotion ! its reflection on the water of 
the Thames sparkling and varying in the ripples was a little 
the best piece of acting we have witnessed ; the clouds 
flying past the moon, the boats on the Thames, and the im- 
mense distance we seemed to be above the town, made it the 
most admirable, complete deception of the kind in the world, 
but still a deception. The charge is a dollar and a quarter 
for the whole, with an additional fee for a hoist in the Eliza- 
bethan moving room, the motion of which made some of us 
feel sea-sick ! It would be preferable to walk up the stairs 
on a warm night. 

This exhibition, though so well patronised, is, like all 
London things of the kind, attended with such vast expenses 
of advertising, &c., as to be unprofitable. 

A literary friend, to whom I am indebted for attentions not 
soon to be forgotten, has furnished me with the following 
curious and interesting particulars respecting a family, the 
individuals of which fill a large space in the public eye at 
home. Of the Taylors of Norwich, he writes : 

" These are in no wise connected with the William Taylor 
of Norwich, whose translations fi-om the German, published 
in the days when Miss Seward was the muse of Lichfield, and 
Sir Walter Scott (her correspondent) was ' gathering honey' 
from the old wives and Dandle Dinmonts of the Border, and 

11* 



126 ENGLAND. 

Mrs. Barbauld read aloud for the amusement of the literary 
circles of Edinburgh, were among the first invitations which 
we English received, to study a young literature, as rich and 
individual, as it was strange. I notice the mistake especially, 
because it is one perpetually made. I believe that the 
Taylor, who was head of the family I allude to, was a small 
merchant or shop-keeper (the class is now extinct), the sim- 
plicity of whose habits, and the modesty of whose fortunes, 
did not prevent his house being sought eagerly by all the in- 
tellectual persons whom chance or professional occupation 
called into the eastern counties. The magnet of attraction 
must have been his wife : one of the most eminent and excel- 
lent women ever created, in whom the perpetual demand of 
household cares, answered with a religious industry, had been 
unable to destroy a mind, original, noble, unceasing in its 
thirst for instruction and knowledge. So rare a mixture was 
Mrs. Taylor of the practical with the poetical, that, alarmed 
by signs of convulsion which attended the French Revoluti(tn, 
she caused each of her sons to learn some handicraft trade, 
by way of providing for his maintainance in the dark days 
which might be coming. You will find few memoirs of our 
distinguished men of liberal principles, who flourished during 
the last fifty years, in which there is not a cordial and re- 
spectful mention of Mrs. Taylor's tea-table ! 

" The * sons and daughters' of this admirable woman (one is 
driven into the scriptural phrases descriptive of a patriarchal 
household, when speaking of such a family) have not been 
unworthy a training in every respect so enlightened. The 
eldest, Mr. John Taylor, Secretary to the British Association 
for the Advancement of Science, is esteemed throughout 
England as the first authority in mining matters ; as a skilful 
geologist, and a most adroit mechanician : an invention of his, 
by which a combination of lathes is made to execute the finest 
work, hitherto only conceived possible to the hand of a most 
sensitive carver, has been just brought to bear in preparing 
the elaborate and florid decorations for our Houses of Parlia- 



ENGLAND. 12T 

ment. Mr. Richard Taylor, another brother, well known in 
our city politics as a thorn in the side of every established 
abuse-monger, is one of the most distinguished printers we 
have : a third son is notorious as an antiquarian : a fourth ma- 
nages the government and steam-conveyances of the southern 
French ports, being at the head of an important engineering 
establishment at Marseilles : a fifth, Mr. Edward Taylor, 
having been unfortunate in mercantile business, turned, when 
past middle life, a very fine voice and strong musical talent to 
account, and after singing for some years, with fair success 
in the orchestra, was promoted to the Gresham Professorship 
of Music, in which capacity he has been singularly successful as 
a lecturer. It is to his son that we owe these translated fairy 
tales, and also an earlier and more profound little book, 
' Michael Angelo as a Poet,' full of ancient Italian scholarship. 
His daughter, too. Miss Catherine Taylor, published some few 
years ago her ' Letters from Italy to a Younger Sister,' a 
valuable and reliable work, full of accurate information with 
regard to the arts and monuments, and tempered with that 
graceful enthusiasm, lacking which all conversation with the 
young becomes a repulsive lecture. 

"The youngest of 'the Taylors of Norwich' is the best 
known among you, Mrs. Austin, the collector of ana touching 
Goethe, the translatress of Prince Puckler Muskau, Von 
Raumer, and Ranke, and whose every word about Germany 
is worth treasuring up and collecting, not only from the sin- 
gular opportunities v/hich she has enjoyed of studying all 
classes of society, from the king down to the poor, during the 
residence of half a life, but because of the exquisitely clear 
and nervous English in which her facts and experience are- 
conveyed. She is mother to Lady Duff Gordon, whose ver- 
sions of ' The Amber Witch,' and the ' Criminal Cases of Feu- 
erbach' are remarkable for the admirable vigour and the close 
acquaintance with the two languages they display. Here, by 
the way, were I disposed to play the Willis for your edifica- 
tion, I might begin to talk about personal beauty, brilliant wit, 



128 ENGLAND. 

and so forth. Further, were I to divaricate into connexions 
by marriage, the parenthesis would be half as long as the letter, 
since the Austins are not reputations to be packed away in a 
corner. Cousin to Lady Duff Gordon, and son to the eldest of 
Mrs. Taylor's daughters, is Mr. Henry Reeve, the translator of 
De Tocqueville, and of M. Guizot's ' Washington,' on sundry 
others of whose literary and political essays could I also des- 
cant, as highly-finished efforts of one sure to rise to a high 
position, were I not bound not to abuse my anonymous cha- 
racter, by violating confidence. I should never be done, were 
I to step out of the immediate circle of this family, since the 
tribe of cousins furnishes its quota to our literature and art. 
There is on one side, for instance. Captain Meadows Taylor, 
the Nizam's right-hand man, whose ' Confessions of a Thug' 
are doubtless known to you. On the other, Miss Kirby, the 
brilliant and beautiful authoress of 'Letters from the Baltic,' 
more eminent almost as an amteur artist, than as a writer ; even 
though she be (let me whisper sub rosa) the one living Bri- 
tomart, who has ever maintained her place among the sharp- 
sworded and high- vested ranks of the Quarterly Reviewers " 
As an instance of the interesting religious, literary, and 
historical associations that so frequently meet one in England, 
I might mention that an invalid friend escaping the smoke of 
London, to take lodgings in the agreeable suburbs of Stoke 
Newington, to his surprise, found himself located in the fine 
old mansion of General Fleetwood, the son-in-law of Crom- 
well, where the Protector is said to have passed much of his 
time. His window overlooked Abney Park, in a corner of which 
Cromwell's disinterred bones are said to rest; the proprietor of 
it was a friend of Watts, who, once paying him a visit, the 
poet was induced to stay thirty-five years. On the other 
side of the street lived De Foe, the saddler, and renowned 
author of Robinson Crusoe ; near him, the writer of Sandford 
and Merton, that treasure of boyhood ; beyond, Lucy Aikin 
and her father, Howard, the truly great ; and near by, Letitia 



ENGLAND. 129 

Barbauld, of " Early Lessons" memory ; while further on was 
located one of Queen Elizabeth's palaces. 

In the hall of the old mansion stood a sedan chair, once 
kept for the purpose of conveying the members of the " Blue 
Stocking Society" to their meetings in bad weather. How 
often may the pleasant Lucy Aikin, or the gifted Barbauld, 
have been assisted by it to the gatherings where the works 
that were to improve and delight England were perhaps first 
read and admired. 

There is much too that is very interesting as marking the 
use of non- conformity connected with Stoke Newington ; 
that great struggle, whicPi has ever since agitated the world, 
which has found its completion in our own happy country, 
and, I believe, will never cease till it finds it in England also. 

Yours, &c. 



130 ENGLAND. 



LETTER LXVIII. 



London. 



Anastatic printing — Learn the art — English patentees — Presses at work 
— Particular adaptation to plans, &c. — Rapidity of reproduction — 
Maps — Illustrated works — Holmes's old Map of the Province of 
Pennsylvania, republished in Philadelphia; but few copies printed — 
Loudon on cemeteries in preparation — Mr. Faraday's lecture — Cham- 
bers's article, Phonography. 

My attention was early called by one of my friends after 
my arrival in London, to the investigation of the new art of 
Anastatic Printing ; and, being requested to control the 
patent for America, my son, as well as myself, passed as 
much time as we could spare in acquiring a knowledge of 
the manipulations necessary to teach the art. It is one of 
great importance to the United States, as by it copies of 
wood-cuts, and even of copper and steel engravings, are 
readily taken ; it has not yet arrived at its destined perfec- 
tion, nor has the steam-press been entirely adapted to the 
work of printing from the zinc plates rapidly ; the English 
patentees have no doubt of ultimate success, and, in the 
mean time, are employing several presses at work requiring 
few copies of each transfer, to great pecuniary advantage ; 
particularly just now they have abundance of work to do for 
the railway companies, whose plans of roads, bridges, eleva- 
tions, termini, &c., are reproduced with a magic rapidity, 



ENGLAND. 131 

which saves months of the time of the copiers ; it is only- 
necessary that any plan should be drawn in lithographic ink, 
brought to the anastatic office, and, in a few moments, fac 
similes are handed to the artist. 

Of course the art has a thousand adaptations ; I will here 
mention a few only. An architect, we will say, wishes to 
compete with others for the contract of a public building, 
church, monument, or for a bridge ; any thing in short of 
which more than one copy is required, either for the different 
members of a committee or legislature ; instead of laboriously 
making copies, he uses the anastatic process, and saves two- 
thirds of his time. A purchaser of real estate, say a square 
of ground, proposes to cut it up for building lots in a certain 
way ; he draws his plan in the suitable ink, walks into the 
anastatic office, and, while he is reading a short paragraph in 
a morning paper, the printer hands him enough copies for his 
purpose at a cost not near equal to drawing the same plan on 
stone for the lithographic press. So with a map ; the owner 
of coal lands or farms wishes to bring their advantages before 
the public, and in no way can he do this better than by plans 
showing their situations and advantages of access to market ; 
he has copies struck off, and attains his object. By this art, 
copies of drawings are taken without the cost of cutting in 
wood, and whole books, with the engravings in them, will be 
reproduced as soon as the application of steam gives rapidity 
to the process. The London Illustrated News, Punch, and 
such works, with costly wood-cuts, may be republished in 
America at a small price. Anatomical works, outlines of all 
kinds, will be produced with great facility. 

Since the foregoing was written, the author brought with 
him to Philadelphia the necessary apparatus and information 
to pursue the business sufficiently to offer patents for the dif- 
ferent States for sale, and a variety of work has been exe- 
cuted at the anastatic office in Philadelphia, to the great 
satisfaction of artists, architects, surveyors, and draughtsmen. 
An interesting application was made at the suggestion of a 



132 ENGLAND. 

number of gentlemen, the result of which is now for sale. 
The oldest map of the Province of Pennsylvania, begun in 
1681 and completed under Penn, known as Holmes's Map, 
had become so extremely scarce as to make its production in 
courts, or reference to it by lawyers and scriveners, extremely 
difficult. Under these circumstances an experienced draughts- 
man carefully traced and copied his tracings in lithographic 
ink. It was printed off in sections, coloured, and mounted, 
and, being a perfect fac simile of the original, met with a 
rapid sale. To make the matter a little curious, as the first 
anastatic map ever issued, but two hundred copies were 
printed and the plates were destroyed. It is as large as the 
usual maps of the United States, hung upon rollers, and is a 
curiosity and a rarity. 

As another adaptation of the art, the author has been re- 
quested to publish a volume on the Laying Out and Orna- 
menting of Public Cemeteries, with copious illustrations, on 
the basis of Loudon's admirable work, but adapted to this 
country. The drawings are now in a forward state, and 
attention has been paid to the selection of the best models for 
monuments, &c. ; it is probable the M^^ork in large octavo will 
be issued in a few weeks after the Summer's Jaunt reaches 
the hands of the public. 

Mr. Faraday delivered a lecture on Anastatic printing, 
which was reported in the Polytechnic Review ; he went 
through all the processes before the audience, and produced 
some fine impressions. The topic made a great talk in every 
circle, and the booksellers became alarmed respecting their 
large capital invested in stereotype plates. Chambers's Jour- 
nal has the following article, which, as the subject interests 
my countrymen, I copy : — 

Speaking of this new wonder. Chambers says : — 

" In contemplating the effect of these astonishing inven- 
tions, it is impossible to foresee their results upon the ordinary 
transactions of life. If any deed, negotiable security, or 
other legal instrument, can be so imitated that the writer of, 



ENGLAND. 133 

and subscriber to it, cannot distinguish his own handwriting 
from that which is forged, new legislative enactments must 
be made, and new modes of representing money, and se- 
curing property by documentary record, must be resorted to. 
A paper currency and copyhold securities will be utterly 
useless, because they will no longer fulfil the objects for 
which they, and instruments of a like nature, are employed. 
Again, the law of copyright as respects literary property will 
have to be thoroughly revised. Let us, for an instant, view 
the case in reference to ' The Times' newspaper. Suppose 
an early copy of that powerful journal to be some morning 
procured, and anastatyped in a quarter of an hour. The pi- 
rated pages may hereafter be subjected to printing machinery, 
and worked off at the rate of 4000 copies in each succeeding 
hour, and sold to the public, to the ruinous injury of the pro- 
prietors. The government newspaper stamp would be no 
protection, for of course that could be imitated as unerringly 
as the rest. This, too, is an extreme case against the imi- 
tators ; for a newspaper would have to be done in a great 
hurry. Books, maps, prints, and music, could be pirated 
wholesale, and at leisure. 

" The new process produces all the effects of stereotyping, 
with the advantage of taking the duplicate from a printed 
impression, instead of from the metal types themselves. So 
far, however, as we can ascertain, one disadvantage attaches 
to the new process, which is, that in working off impressions 
from the zinc plates, a kind of press must be used different 
from that employed for types — one partaking somewhat of 
the nature of a lithographic press. Till, therefore, the in- 
ventors proceed with their improvements so far as to cause 
the acid to corrode the interstices of the letters sufficiently 
deep into the plate, as to make them stand in relief of equal 
height with types, we do not anticipate that, as a substitute 
for stereotyping, it will be so extensively used as they antici- 
pate. It may also be remarked that the economy of this 
invention will chiefly be seen in works of limited sale. In 

VOL. II. 12 



134 ENGLAND. 

such as the present, the typographical arrangements sink 
into a bagatelle beside the enormous outlay for paper, an 
abolition of the duty on which would be of more use to such 
works than an invention doing away with every other ex- 
pense whatsoever. 

" In another department of relief printing, there is no ques- 
tion that the anastatic process will cause a complete revolution, 
and that very speedily ; namely, in illustrative and ornamental 
printing. Wood-engraving will be entirely superseded, for 
no intermediate process will now be necessary between the 
draughtsman and the printing of his design. It is generally 
known that at present the artist draws in pencil his design 
on the box- wood, and that the engraver, with sharp instruments, 
cuts away all the white parts or interstices, so as to cause 
the objects previously figured to stand in relief, that they 
only may receive the ink passed over them in printing. Un- 
fortunately, many wood-engravers, from want of skill in 
drawing, do not render the intentions of the designer with 
fidelity. Now, however, all the draughtsman will have to do 
will be to make his drawing on paper, and Ihat^ line for line, 
will be transferred to the zinc, and produce, when printed, 
exactly the same effect as his original draught. A pen is 
recommended for this purpose, which may be used 'on any 
paper free from hairs or filaments, and well sized. The re- 
quisite ink is a preparation made for the purpose, and may be 
mixed to any degree of thickness in pure distilled water, and 
should be used fresh and slightly warm when fine effect is to 
be given. In making or copying a design, pencil may be 
used, but the marks must be left on the paper, and by no 
means rubbed with India-rubber or bread. The paper should 
be kept quite clean, and free from rubbing, and should not be 
touched by the fingers, inasmuch as it will retain marks of 
very slight touches.' A drawing thus produced can be 
readily transferred to the zinc in the manner above described 
for typography. 
" Two pages of the Art-Union are printed upon the new plan. 



ENGLAND. 135 

Besides the letterpress, from which we derive our present in- 
formation, are five printed drawings and an illuminated letter. 
* The letterpress,' says the editor, ' was first set in type by 
the ordinary printer of the Art- Union, leaving spaces for the 
drawn or engraved illustrations, which having been set into 
their respective places on a proof of the letterpress, the whole 
was cast on to a zinc plate, and so printed off.' Neither is 
it to printing of recent date only that the invention is appli- 
cable ; transfers from books a century old have already been 
made. ' Rare editions" and ' unique copies' will in a few 
years vanish from the counter of the book-sale and the shelves 
of the bibliomaniac. Now it is ascertained how exactly they 
may be counterfeited, not even Doctor Dibdin himself will be 
able to venture to pronounce upon a ♦ genuine black-letter.' " 
The first application of the art which we witnessed was at 
Ipswich, where some enthusiastic followers of the Phono- 
graphic method of writing issued a periodical in Phonogra- 
phic characters from the A'nastatic hand-press, thus com- 
bining two novelties. Phonography having made some small 
progress in America, the following observations upon it may 
interest my readers : — 

PHONOGRAPHY. 

There is a new mode of writing, much practised in Eng- 
land, and which has excited some attention in our own coun- 
try — Phonography, or ''talking on paper." Sheridan said 
that Egyptian hieroglyphics were not better calculated to 
conceal the secrets of knowledge, than English spelling to 
make a secret of English pronunciation. It is remarked that 
there is not a word in our language that might not be written 
in various ways, and that there is but one in a thousand pro- 
nounced in accordance with the names of the letters. We 
might instance the word cause, cause. Would not a child 
or foreigner, very naturally pronouncing from the names of 
the letters, call it say you see, which is in accordance with 



136 ENGLAND. 

the spelling 1 He must be told that the c is here pronounced 
like k, and the a u sounded like awe ; when it makes kaw se. 
He must again be tutored that the s is 2, and the e mute — 
and the word pronounced like k a w s ! 

Phonography is an attempt to remedy these defects of our 
orthography, by expressing in a few signs all the sounds of 
English and other languages. By combinations of these few 
signs, and assisted by simple abbreviations, sentences are 
very shortly and clearly expressed, according to their pro- 
nunciation. Thus : the word though is commonly written 
with six letters to express two sounds, while the Phonographer 
writes it with two strokes of his pen ; and an ordinary profi- 
cient of the science, it is said, expresses as much in fifteen 
minutes as by the long (very long) hand can be written in an 
hour. 

Were the system well carried out and made to supersede 
the present mode of writing, there are many advantages that 
would probably more than counterbalance the inconvenience 
of a change. 

Instead of its requiring years for a child to learn to read 
with tolerable accuracy, one " seven or eight years old will 
be able to read in a week." There is little difficulty in spelling 
a word properly pronounced, and a word written in this way 
can be rightly enunciated with certainty ; thus the difficulty 
of giving the names of new places would be remedied. 
Foreigners will not be led into errors of pronunciation by 
our orthography ; our language, too, which is said to be the 
simplest in its grammar and construction of any in the world, 
will be rendered accessible to the rest of civilized mankind. 
It is hoped that it will be a great aid to the spread of the 
Gospel, as missionaries will be able easily to reduce new 
languages to a written form. No tongue need be unwritten, 
and all the numerous existing languages may be merged into 
one convenient and excellent standard of pronunciation. If 
the poor and the young were taught in a Bible written in an 
alphabet with as many letters as sounds in the language, how 



ENGLAND. 137 

large a proportion of the difficulties of learning to read would 
be dispensed with. 

There is a natural presumption against the claims of anew 
art that professes so much ; but it would be well to examine 
into this before rejecting it, as it has made a great impression 
in England. Thousands of letters, written in these charac- 
ters, it is said, pass the post-office monthly. There are 
three Phonographic Journals, and at a large school near York, 
the art is taught. There is a list of Phonographic publica- 
tions in their fifth edition ; there are a number of teachers 
and lecturers, through whose formation of classes, and the 
efforts of the members of the corresponding society, offering 
as proficients to assist any new learners, it may ere long 
supersede our present mode of writing. In addition, Pho- 
nography is quite the fashion. As soon as the symbols, 
which represent the sounds of language, are acquired, the 
alphabet is fixed, and the pupil is able to pronounce accurately 
any word in any language that is written in it. 

Yours, &c. 



12* 



13S ENGLAND. 



LETTER LIX. 



London, July, 1845. 



The League Bazaars — Cause of the movement — Lord John Russell's 
resolutions— State of the poor — Prosjects of a repeal of the Corn 
Laws — Influence of free trade upon international peace — Contribu- 
tions to the bazaars — Bearing of free trade upon American interests. 

It would have been very difficult to describe to you when 
I first arrived in London in May, the excitement that pre- 
vailed here regarding the Anti-Monopoly Association Bazaar ; 
the " Anti-Corn- Law League," is the term generally applied 
to the associated band who are moving every nerve to pull 
down what they consider the impediment to the greatness of 
England — the cancer which starves the people and fosters 
the aristocracy in luxury and idleness. " Let us have cheap 
bread," is their cry morning by morning ; it is their evening 
prayer, and the dream of its fulfilment haunts their midnight 
vigils. They are men who will not be disappointed, if peace- 
ful means, overpowering exertion, talent, and industry united 
to numbers, can accomplish their grand object, free trade. 

Lord John Russell announced recently, his intention of 
bringing under the deliberate consideration of the Legislature 
the condition of the labouring classes of the United Kingdom ; 
a grave, a great, a vast subject. All thinkers, for the last 
thirty years, have pointed to the great fact, in spite of Eng- 
land's extraordinary progress in material improvement, that 
" wealth accumulates and men decay," not in numbers, but 
in social standing and individual happiness. With capital 



ENGLAND. 1 39 

accumulating enormously, — with landed property continually 
advancing in value, — with a people multiplying rapidly, — the 
toiling millions, say the anti-monopolists, are more and more 
circumscribed and hemmed in ; their individual value lessen- 
ing ; their power over their own position crippling daily ; 
and masses of wretchedness perpetually confronting the 
wealth, the resources, and the greatness of England, like 
mud hovels surrounding marble palaces. 

It is this, the " condition of England question," which called 
into existence the Anti-Corn-Law League ; an engine of 
immense power for good or evil, gaining increased strength 
by every accelerated movement, and determined to prevail. 
This is the instrument which is to work, if it succeeds, the 
gradual downfall of the aristocracy. Lord John Russell's 
resolutions were as follow : — 

" 1. That the present state of political tranquillity, and the 
recent revival of trade, afford to this House a favourable op- 
portunity to consider of such measures as may tend perma- 
nently to improve the condition of the labouring classes. 

"2. That those laws which impose duties, usually called 
protective, tend to impair the efiiciency of labour, to restrict 
the free interchange of commodities, and to impose on the 
people unnecessary taxation. 

" 3. That the present Corn Law tends to check improve- 
ments in agriculture, produces uncertainty in all farming 
speculations, and holds out to the owners and occupiers of land 
prospects of special advantage which it fails to secure. 

"4. That this House will take the said laws into considera- 
" lion, with a view to such cautious and deliberate arrange- 
ments as may be most beneficial to all classes of her Majesty's 
subjects, 

" 5. That the freedom of industry would be promoted by a 
careful revision of the law of parochial settlement which now 
prevails in England and Wales. 

" 6. That a systematic plan of colonization would partially 
relieve those districts of the country where the deficiency of 



140 ENGLAND. 

employment has been most injurious to the labourers in 
husbandry. 

" 7. That the improvements made of late years in the edu- 
cation of the people, as well as its more general diffusion, 
have been seen with satisfaction by this House. 

" 8. That this House will be ready to give its support to 
measures, founded on liberal and comprehensive principles, 
which may be conducive to the further extension of religious 
and moral instruction, 

" 9. That an humble address be presented to her Majesty, 
to lay the foregoing resolutions before her Majesty." 

These resolutions cover the whole ground in dispute ; facts 
will prove that an amount of suffering exists among the poor 
in England the moment any depression takes place, which 
every Christian country might blush to own. At this mo- 
ment, when all is prosperous, accounts of the most awful 
destitution of the labourers of Dorchester and the surrounding 
counties are well attested and widely circulated : one person 
has certified that he went with a friend into twelve different 
cottages, and that " he would not give more than ten dollars 
for all the goods found in the twelve houses occupied by able- 
bodied men ;" the grown men, the women, and the children, 
were huddling together like pigs ; they were in want of every 
thing ; — the Bazaar managers actually made up five hundred 
beds and distributed them to the agricultural labourers of this 
district. 

It strikes a mere looker-on at the struggle, that the time is 
not yet come when the loM-makers can be induced to enact 
statutes which shall ruin themselves ; but the crying of 
millions for untaxed bread, will — must be heard ; it will not 
do for the hereditary landlords to fold their arms and say, — 
" This is our land, we will do with it as we please ; we never 
invited this redundant population of paupers ; what claim 
have they on us .^" These paupers have acquired friends ; a 
race of intelligent merchants and manufacturers have con- 
vinced themselves that the great bar to their prosperity and 



ET^ G L A N D. 141 

consequently to the prosperity of the middle and particularly 
the lower classes, is the enormous tax upon food and imports ; 
they have already made Sir Pobert Peel tremble in his posi- 
tion ; he has been forced, they say, into many admissions 
of the justice of their cause ; he perfectly understands it, as 
he has proved by his studied and reiterated declarations at 
the hustings, and by his having already abolished some oner- 
ous taxes ; but in the House of Commons he takes refuge in 
" intricacy," " conflict of authorities," " different opinions," 
and " much controversy." He has successfully evaded the 
main question so far ;* but it is confidently believed that at no 
distant day he must respond to the call of the country ; for 
in England public opinion, when it is ascertained beyond a 
doubt, is as powerful as in any country of the world, and in 
no country of the world do the owners of land bear so small 
a share of the public burdens as in Great Britain ; none 
where land-holders have laboured, with a tithe of the industry 
or success, to shuffle off their fiscal responsibilities on other 
people's shoulders. 

The last report of the League is full of hope and promise 
of success ; the number of members has very greatly increas- 
ed ; after a heavy expenditure the funds are ample, and the 
confidence in their object and movements is daily augment- 
ing. The fallacies, they say, which a selfish policy had en- 
deavoured to impress on the public mind is in process of 
refutation. The experience that has been had proves that 
the revenue, which had declined in years of scarcity, has 
flourished in years of abundance. It is proved beyond con- 
troversy, that the interest of the agricultural labourer in 
agricultural protection is comprised within six shillings or 
seven shillings per week, while capable of labour, and the 
reversion of the parish work-house in his old age. Why 
sacrifice the commercial and manufacturing interests whose 
expansive power furnish the means of subsistence to the 

* Since this was penned Sir Robert has avowed himself conquered. 



142 ' ENGLAND. 

increase of British population, to the agricultural interest, 
whose means of employment are constantly declining?— 
Again, — the whole number of the population engaged in 
commerce and manufactures is more than two to one to the 
agricultural ; British shipping is first made the dearest in the 
world, by heavy taxes on ship-building timber, and then for- 
bidden to earn good freights when offered, by the monopolies 
on corn, provisions, sugar, and coffee. 

As a powerful incentive to peace, free trade is urged for 
adoption with arguments that are entirely convincing. The 
aspect of European affairs is now decidedly encouraging. If 
we look back wiih a shudder at the exterminating wars 
which thirty years of peace have almost obliterated, save 
from the page of history — we , look forward with hope that 
the relations which free intercourse would have, will render 
their recurrence impossible. National jealousies will be ex- 
tirpated, interests created utterly incompatible with war, and 
hostile nations, as we already see, knit together into one wide 
brotherhood of humanity. There is a growing conviction too, 
among intelligent thinkers, that the productive classes must 
be better fed, better clothed, better housed, and above all, 
their social and intellectual wants more amply supplied. 

Society is stirred to its very depths by the discussion, and 
every scheme and every failure are but the waves that mark 
the heaving of the mighty struggle ; free trade is the one — 
the universal panacea in the minds of its advocates, which is 
to alleviate all evils, cure all political sores ; — which is to 
drag the poor, ill-clad, agricultural labourer from his misery, 
and to feed the poor manufacturer with better bread. Their 
arguments, as above stated, are plausible — nay, they have the 
additional inducements of humanity ; their opponents have 
their own interests to consult ; — they are the law-makers, as 
I remarked before, and reform in this particular, looked upon 
as it is as vital, must appear to you, as it really is, an hercu- 
lean task to accomplish. 

An immense amount of time, labour, and expense was 



E NG LAND. • 143 

lavishly bestowed upon the League Bazaar; contributions 
were sent from all parts of the country to an incredible 
amount ; London, during its continuance, was evidently more 
full than has been known for years ; the advocates of the 
cause flocked to Covent Garden Theatre, where it was held, 
in hundreds of thousands, rendering access to its doors almost 
a risk of life ; the display within startled every beholder by 
its extent and beauty, and an enormous fund was added to the 
treasure, accumulating by hundreds of thousands of dollars, 
to pay the expenses of a perfect registration of voters, as well 
as to discharge the debts incurred in awakening the minds of 
the people to the importance of the cause. 

I have alluded to this subject in order to give a slight 
idea of the momentous importance attached to the move- 
ment by thousands of the British nation, believing that the 
result will be watched on our side of the Atlantic with 
reference not only to the interests of suffering humanity, but 
also in regard to its bearings upon the admission of one of our 
great staples into English ports. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LXX. 

The wet weather; its probable influence on the Corn Laws — Leave 
London — Leamington Spa — A dull season — The shooting parties — 
Sportsmen — Price of shooting privileges — Keniiworth Castle; its 
present state — Warwick Castle; an exemplar of baronial grandeur — 
The Grevilles and Brookes — Countess of Warwick — Approach to the 
Castle — Meeting an American — Caesar's Tower — General view — 
Warwick Vase — The Great Hall — The Cicerone — The pictures — 
Queen Anne's bed — Beauchamp Chapel. 

This season has been remarkably wet and eold throughout 



144 .ENGLAND. 

Great Britain ; so much so, that fires have been v6ry neces- 
sary in our chambers during the month of August ; the 
crops are likely to be materially injured. One of the 
results predicted by the members of the League is, that 
the ministry will be compelled sooner than they anticipated, 
to legislate for the admission of corn free of duty. This an- 
noying weather would have considerably abridged the pleasure 
of moving about, but that we had now become somewhat 
accustomed to the humid atmosphere, and had prepared our- 
selves with water-proof hats and coats to brave its inconve- 
niences. Without attempting descriptions of a thousand 
sights, or naming the individuals who continued to render 
our residence in London and its vicinity both instructive and 
agreeable ; even omitting the oft-described Tower of London, 
and the other attractions, by which we have been so con- 
stantly surrounded, I wi]l proceed with my route. 

A single day's excursion by railroad, brings the traveller 
to Leamington Spa, not far from Birmingham, a good point 
from which to visit Warwick and Kenilworth Castles. The 
shooting-season in the moors of Scotland is just approaching, 
Parliament is on the eve of closing its session, the Queen 
will evaporate in a few days for Germany, and the London 
season will be at an end. The number of passengers, there- 
fore, for the route northward is immense ; sportsmen with 
their guns and dogs, and whole families with their horses and 
carriages, were attached to our train to-day, making it the 
longest and heaviest for passengers, I have ever seen. A 
party of three London gentlemen, formed an agreeable circle 
in our department of the coach ; they are bound for the moors, 
each apparently with a gun ; they have paid the Marquis of 
Breadalbane two thousand dollars for the privilege of shooting 
with two guns over a certain specified district, for six weeks ; 
the third gentleman, though he has a gun-case, has no gun ; 
he belongs, he says, to the class that approves of a division 
of labour ; his friends are to shoot the grouse, and he is to eat 
them ; but as it would never do to travel unarmed just pre- 



ENGLAND. 145 

vious to the 12th of August, when the shooting'-season begins, 
he has borrowed a gun-case and filled it with books, to amuse 
himself, while his companions are in the moors ! Thus he 
obtains credit for being a sportsman without the fatigue. His 
humour will certainly repay his friends for his absence from 
the field. 

We stopped at Coventry, and took a branch rail to Leam- 
ington, where the George Inn affords every luxury ; but the 
dampness has given this watering-place a dull air — very few 
visiters have arrived, and no wonder; for it continues to rain 
every hour of every day. I visited the pump-room early in 
the morning; what a different scene from Baden, or Wies- 
baden ! Four musicians were grinding off" the regular allow- 
ance on violins and hautboys, in a long empty room ; the noise 
reverberated along the ceilings in the most melancholy man- 
ner — rain and mud without, and solitude Vv^ithin. At last an 
old, gouty gentleman was seen approaching in a hand-cart, to 
take a bath, attended by his wife with flannels. I felt so 
distressed at the solitude, that rather than be utterly ennuyed, 
I hired a red-coated postilion and comfortable carriage, and 
drove merrily off* after breakfast, to Kenilworth and War- 
wick. 

Ail the accounts of Kenilworth (and there are so many I 
shall not attempt to add much to them), convey an idea that 
there is less of the building left standing than you find to be 
the case. Compared with what it was when perfect, there 
may be little remaining, but there is still an immense amount 
of walls ; you adopt at once the plan prescribed by the poet : 

" Here let us pause awhile, 
To read the melancholy tale of pomp 
Laid low in dust." 

An inglorious death, indeed, has Kenilworth Castle died, 
torn piecemeal by sordid hands w^hich had only in view the 
value of the materials. Cromwell comes in for his full share 
of malediction, for he dismantled the towers; the present 

VOL. ri. 13 



146 ENGLAND. 

owner is careful to preserve it as far as possible. On arriving", 
you find that it is locked ; a wall surrounds it, partly of the 
most durable ancient construction, and where necessary, re- 
pairs have made access without the guide and fee, impossible. 

^ On our approach, a dozen blowsy girls, without shoes, ran a 
foot-race to the carriage to sell a shilling guide-book. We 
stopped before a portion of the old building, the warder's 
chamber with the arms of Dudley, which has been repaired 
for the dwelling of the farmer who tills the plaisance (the 
lake's former site), and the park ! What a contrast ! His 
pigs are running about his court-yard, knee-deep in mud, 

7 where Leicester and the Queen's courtiers were wont to 
tread ! where Sir Walter peopled the scene with the gigantic 
warder's secret ally Flibbertigibbet, or Dickie Sludge. The 
lake is dry; no floating pageants, formed to represent sea- 
horses, on which sat Tritons, Nereids, and other fabulous 
deities of the seas and rivers, can now be seen, except in 
imagination; all that was the work of man is reduced to a 
state of ruin ; the earth forms a striking contrast ; distorted 
by art and part of it covered by water, nature again predomi- 
nates ; a capital farm has succeeded to the olden fashions of 
the place. 

The rear of Kenil worth Castle was to me. its most remark- 
able feature. The farmer gave me liberty to walk around it 
on the former site of the lake, whence the strength and so- 
lidity of the whole are most striking. The old walls are 
covered with thick ivy, the vines are almost trees in size, and 
they have grown on tower and battlement of such enormous 
strength that the old dead limbs, stretching their arms above 
the pinnacles, seem to tell a tale of their own ; a tale modern 
to the scene, and yet itself ancient. The rear-walls of the 
old castle support a cow-shed ! 

Mrs. Sigourney says, " 1 always longed for ruins ;" Kenil- 

^ worth will satisfy the greatest admirer of such sights, and 
will fill his memory with thoughts and recollections. It is 



ENGLAND. 147 

unquestionably the most interesting ruin I have yet encoun- 
tered : 

" Change hath swept 
With wave on wave the feudal limes away, 
And from their mightiest fabrics plucked the pride." 

Or, as is expressed by another poet : 

"But regal state, 
And sprightly mirth, beneath the festive roof 
Are now no more." 

Kenilworth formerly included within its walled court, 
seven acres ; scattered fragments are now strewed around ; 
you traverse the Inner and Grand Court, and pause before 
Ceesar's Tower ; though the most ancient, it is the strongest 
and most perfect part of the Castle now in existence ; it was 
the keep and citadel : three sides are still standing, some 
portions of it sixteen feet thick ; ashlings and alders overtop 
every relic of this once magnificent abode of princes, and 
occupy the position where once the standard of rebellion — 
the ensigns of mighty chieftains — and the royal banners of 
England during the successive reigns of the Plantagenets 
and Tudors — have proudly floated in the breeze. 

I might easily fill my sheet with either description or 
with historical reminiscences. Leicester's buildings, stables, 
tilt-yard, gallery, tower, and kitchens, with numerous other 
points of interest, arrest the eye at every turn of the great 
ruin — but I will forbear : 

" The ivy clusters o'er thy walls, their only arras now. 
And draperies each broken arch with folds of verdant flow!" 

Warwick Castle, as an exemplar of baronial grandeur, has 
no superior in Europe ; it remains a specimen of feudal times 
unrivalled in its beauty, being still occupied and in fine keep- 
ing ; no American who goes to England should omit a visit 



148 ENGLAND. 

to it. Antiquarians who trace its history, declare that a 
fortification existed here A. D. 50. After the destruction 
of the town by the Danes, it was rebuilt and protected 
by Ethelfleda, the spirited daughter of Alfred the Great ; 
she laid the foundation of the castle in 915 ; she married 
Etheldred, Earl of Mercia. The Danes under Canute in 
1016, nearly demolished the fortifications and the town, 
which, however, were soon resuscitated. 

The property has belonged to several successive families ; 
the present title is in Henry Richard Greville, Earl Brooke, 
and Earl of Warwick ; his only son is George Grey, Lord 
Brooke. Fulk Greville, the first of his family ennobled by 
the title of Lord Brooke, was born in 1554, and received his 
juvenile education v^ith his cousin, the great Sir Philip Sid- 
ney. The curious history of the family, however, is not for 
me to write ; suffice it to say, that the present countess is 
endeared to all who know her, for excellence and many 
virtues, not the least of which is her habitual charity to the 
distressed ; — a noble substitute for feudal pomp. 

The approach to the castle is grand in the extreme ; you 
pass an embattled gateway, where is the porter's lodge, and 
enter a fine broad winding road, deeply cut through solid 
rock ; the sides studded with evergreens, coppices, and ivy 
creeping in the greatest luxuriance. After about five 
minutes' walk, a turn in this road brings you to the outer 
court, where the stupendous line of fortified walls and towers 
breaks upon your sight. On the right appears a fine polygon 
tower, having walls ten feet in thickness, a base of thirty 
feet in diameter, rising to the height of one hundred and 
twenty-eight feet. 

I ascended this alone, its guardian lover of fees being 
occupied in showing its wonders to a gentleman who had 
preceded me. On arriving at the top, I soon discovered he 
was waiting on an American ; we recognised each other as 
countrymen in two minutes' conversation. We took lei- 
surely surveys of the beautiful scenery, examined the old 



ENGLAND. 149 

rooms fitted up for soldiers' sleeping- apartments in ancient 
times, where the windows were constructed for archers, and 
descended to view the still higher Caesar's Tower and the 
inner court. 

Caesar's Tower, thought to be coeval with the Norman con- 
quest, is one hundred and forty-seven feet in height ; it is 
connected with the others by means of a strong embattled 
wall of considerable length, in the centre of which is the 
ponderous arched gateway and towers. The spacious area 
of the inner court is covered with the greenest grass ; on the 
left is the grand irregular castellated mansion of the feudal 
barons of Warwick, a residence such as you may not now 
look upon in any other part of the world. Uninjured by 
time, unaltered in appearance by modern improvements, it 
frowns upon the spectator in solemn grandeur ; other walls 
and towers on the right and in front complete the enclosure, 
the former pierced by a gateway leading to the pleasure- 
grounds and green-houses of the most costly kind, where old 
trees, new plants, and perfect cultivation, attest the taste and 
the expense lavished by the noble owner. In the green- 
house is the celebrated Warwick Vase. 

We now entered the Great Hall, under escort of the fourth 
person who had expected a fee, the first being the porter, the 
second Guy's tower-guide, the third the gardener ; our pre- 
sent cicerone was a specimen of his class ; without educa- 
tion, he was gentlemanly enough in his manners, but utterly 
unab!e to comm.unicate the slightest information beyond a 
certain routine of description learned by rote. The Great 
Hall, sixty-two feet by forty, and thirty-four in height, has 
been renovated with a new tessellated floor of Italian marble, 
and a new ceiling or gothic roof of extraordinary beauty. 
The walls are wainscoted with old oak, that looks as if it 
might be coeval with the date of the castle ; this is hung 
with ancient armour and the antlers of the rein and moose 
deer ; there is a rich and complete suit of steel armour, and 
over it is suspended the helmet, studded with brass, usually 

13* 



150 ENGLAND. 

worn by Cromwell. There are several old but curious chests, 
that look as if intended as the depositories of family plate 
and papers ; — a valuable Grecian sarcophagus, and several 
curious chairs, with other ancient furniture. The view from 
the great recessed windows down upon the gentle Avon 
laving the walls one hundred feet below, and the great and 
highly cultivated park beyond, is perfectly enchanting. 

You are now conducted to the suite of apartments beyond, 
and have pointed out the several respective pictures of the 
greatest value belonging to the Earl ; among them you are 
most struck by Vandyck's unique portrait of Charles I. in 
armour ; — Da Vinci's Joanna of Naples, the most admirable 
picture for a female portrait I have ever seen ; — Rubens's 
Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel ; — Spinola, by the same;— 
Paul Veronese's Margaret Duchess of Parma ; — Vandyck's 
Marquis of Montrose; — a Circe, by Guide Reni;— Rubens's 
Ignatius Loyola ; and finally, Holbein's Henry the Eighth, in 
Lady Warwick's boudoir ; other beautiful productions are 
also conspicuous ; but I have enumerated sufficient to show 
you that Warwick Castle possesses treasures of art such as 
few can ever hope again to collect. 

There. is also some fine statuary, Egyptian marble tables, 
bronzes, and a thousand articles of beauty, rarity, and ele- 
gance. In the state bed-room, the furniture of which is of 
rich crimson velvet, is the bed which formerly belonged to 
Queen Anne ; the walls are hung with old tapestry in fine 
preservation, executed at Brussels in 1604. The prospects 
from Lady Warwick's boudoir are incomparably fine, and in 
addition you look down upon noble cedars of Lebanon, grow- 
ing out of the rocks below, and showing their beautiful heavy 
branches in great perfection. 

The country around is very interesting. T rode to St. 
Mary's church, a venerable and remarkable one, where is 
the celebrated Beauchamp chapel, one of the most costly in 
England ; like so many I have seen it was undergoing re- 
pair ; but I had an opportunity of inspecting the tombs of 



ENGLAND. 151 

Queen Elizabeth's favourite, Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 
whose doing's at Kenilworth are better known through Sir 
Walter's novel than many deeds of greater historical interest 
which have occurred in this neighbourhood. The monument 
to Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, is considered the 
most splendid in the kingdom, with the exception of that of 
Henry the Seventh, in Westminster Abbey. The town is 
small. Adopting Mrs. Sigourney's lines, I must bid adieu to 
this interesting vicinity : — 

" With traveller's glance 
We turned from Warwick's castellated dome, 
Wrapt in its cloud of rich reraerabrances, 
And took our pilgrim way. There many a trait 
Of rural life we gathered up to fill 
The outline of our picture, shaded strong 
By the dark pencil of old feudal times." 

Taking the main stem of the midland counties' railroad for 
the north, after changing baggage from the branches, I stopped 
at Derby to see the Arboretum planted by the celebrated 
writer on gardening, Mr. Loudon. 

Yours, &c. 



152 ENGLAND. 



LETTER LXXI. 



Derby. 



Fashion— Sportsmen — Derby — The Arboretum founded by Mr. Strutt 
— How laid out — How the trees and shrubs are labelled — Regula- 
tions — Lodges for parties — A place for study — Books on botany gratis 
— Opposed by the clergy — The question divides society into parties 
— Gentlemen's band — The Anniversary — Crowd — Caught in the rain 
— A scene — Apology lor the weather. 

As many people, carriages, horses, and dog-s, as could be 
conveyed by a powerful locomotive were again encountered, 
all travelling- north; but certainly, if they consulted their 
comfort, they would have gone in the opposite direction, for 
the weather is miserably cold and raw : the twelfth of August 
however, is close at hand ; fashion declares it the season for 
emigration, shooting-time approaches ; people who would be 
in the ton must obey the call ; sportsmen and dogs predomi- 
nated among the passengers. 

The Ancient town of Derby, celebrated for its silk, cotton, 
and fine worsted manufactories, is situated on the river Der- 
went ; you are nov/ approaching the scene of the Derbyshire 
Spar manufactories, specimens of which beautiful material 
may be purchased here, but in greater variety at Matlock. 
Richardson, the author of Sir Charles Grandison, was a native 
of Derby. Prince Charles Stuart advanced so far on his 
march into England ; they still show the house in which he 
slept. 

The attraction to Derby was the public garden planted as 
an Arboretum, where it is proposed to grow a specimen of 
every species of tree and shrub that will bear the climate. 



ENGLAND. 163 

It was planned by Joseph Strutt, Esq., a wealthy silk manu- 
facturer, and a member of Parliament, as a gift to his towns- 
men ; it is one of the noblest donations, for its beauty and 
utility, ever made by an individual for the benefit of a com- 
munity in perpetuity. There are eleven acres, laid out in 
such a manner as to give an idea of much greater extent ; the 
walks being excavated, and the earth thus obtained being 
carried up gradually sloping ridges well planted, the ad- 
joining path is not visible; you may thus be within twenty 
feet of a large party without being aware of their presence. 
The circuit is thus much extended compared with what it 
would have been had not this device been adopted ; the 
boundaries are hidden by shrubbery, and the best modern 
hints on landscape gardening have all been adopted by Mr. 
Loudon. When the trees, which are now small, have had 
time to grow, the Derby Arboretum will contain such a va- 
riety as to be one of the most attractive spots to the botanist 
in Europe. They are never to be allowed to attain great 
height or size, the object of the institution being to assemble 
as great a variety as possible for the purpose of instruction. 
To this end every tree and shrub is labelled with its appro- 
priate botanical and common name in the following manner : 
A cast-iron rod with a square top indented so as to receive 
a glass covering, is inserted in the ground at the foot of each 
plant, the names are conspicuously painted, and the glass 
glazed in : thus those who run may read. The benevolent 
founder, whose bequest amounted to fifty thousand dollars, 
land, buildings, and improvements included, intended it as a 
place of recreation for all classes, including the working 
population, who are admitted gratuitously five days in the 
week including Sunday after church service ; on the other 
two days the fee of admission is sixpence, for the purpose of 
keeping the place in order, for repairs, &c. The beautiful 
lodges at two entrances are so arranged that comfortable 
rooms for visiters are attached, where pic-nic parties may 
bring their food, and obtain the use of plates, knives, and forks 



154 * ENGLAND. 

for the smallest fee ; tea, coffee, and cakes are sold at prices 
barely covering the cost. 

So far the whole affair has worked well for the pleasure 
and improvement of the middle and poorer classes, who enjoy 
the recreation afforded, and have proved themselves worthy 
of the trust reposed in them ; many have taken to the study 
of Arboriculture ; books for reference, such as those invaluable 
ones of Loudon's, are kept for the use of visiters without any 
charge or fee whatever. There is one little drawback I must 
mention, which has divided the town into strong parties, and 
in some cases has even gone so far as to break the friendships 
of families — alas ! for poor human nature ! the clergy and 
their followers have taken it into their wise heads, that people 
who toil all the week should not recreate themselves among 
the beauties of nature on the Sabbath, even after church ser- 
vice. They would have them confine themselves at home 
instead ofioalking in a garden ! The consequence has been, 
that scarcely any clergyman ever enters the Derby Arbore- 
tum ; they discountenance it in every way. I hope it may be 
long before the clergy of any denomination ever obtain the 
power in any country which shall deprive the poor penned-up 
work-people of a Sunday's walk in a garden ! 

Mr, Strutt's arrangements contemplated a little further re- 
creation on week days ; handsome tents are provided for such 
visiters as desire to have a rural fete champetre ; to these, 
under proper regulations of the trustees, who are perpetually 
a committee of the town councils, a party may resort to 
dance, bringing a band, or to enjoy music. This is another 
objectionable step in the eyes of the opposition, but public 
favour is decidedly on the side of the Arboretum arrange- 
ments; a company of respectable gentlemen of the town have 
just organized themselves into a musical band, and they de- 
sign to perform in the Arboretum on moonlight nights, and 
on the anniversaries of the opening of the grounds. 

An anniversary, the third or fourth, has just passed. On 
this occasion the Derby people were determined to be gene- 



ENGLAND. 155 

rous to the inhabitants of the neighbouring towns who had 
not the same advantages. Invitations were issued to the in- 
habitants of Birmingham, Nottingham, and other manufac- 
turing places, to be present, and enjoy themselves. Railroad 
facilities were offered by managers of the different lines, and 
a long afternoon of pleasure was anticipated. What was the 
alarm of the Derbyites as each successive train arrived longer 
and fuller than its predecessor ; the town literally swarmed 
with holiday visiters bent on a day of pleasure, some bringing 
baskets of provisions, but the most of them arrived hungry, 
expecting they were asked to a feast ! Dire was the disap- 
pointment! No feast was provided. The garden, at four 
o'clock, presented a scene that might have cheered the heart 
of the founder had he been alive ; nine thousand persons were 
present; three large bands of music were heard approaching, 
when a most furious burst of rain came on without warning. 
Such a scampering ! {Such duckings ! and drenchings ! and 
cries for food were never before heard in old Derby. The 
inhabitants, hospitable as far as their provisions went, and 
anxious lest the character of their favourite Arboretum should 
suffer in the minds of the deluged, exerted every nerve to 
remedy the misfortune. They assured their visiters that it 
always cleared up in Derby, and persuaded them to stay a 
little and a little longer ; but this day the Derby weather was 
inexorable ; it would not clear up, but the rain continued to 
fall faster and faster till the shades of evening set in ; and 
then all made for the railroad station to get home, hungry, 
wet, and disappointed, to the complimented towns they had 
left. 

Such numbers repaired to the station that another scene 
of scramble and vexation ensued which beggared description ; 
they were not all disposed of till one o'clock at night. Thus 
ended the first invitation to the neighbours to celebrate the 
anniversary. The Derby newspaper, published the day of my 
arrival, apologized for the weather in a column article of great 
sorrow and regret ; said how fine the celebration would have 



156 ENGLAND. 

been, but for, &c., &c. ; and then it goes into an argument to 
prove that there is no kind of danger of a recurrence of such 
rain next year ; says they will have better music, and seouts 
the idea of even thinking of changing the period for the 
amusements so unhappily interrupted. It w^ill be long before 
this Derby day ceases to be a prominent topic of conversation 
among the celebraters of its disastrous events. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTERLXXII. 

Matlock — The spar factories — Haddon Hall ; a good exemplar of a ba- 
ronial castle as it was — Kitchen &c., &c — The famil}' cradle — Queen 
Elizabeth's state bed — Goblins — Garden — Duke of Rutland — The 
farmer — Antiques. 

Taking the rail once more, I proceeded to Ambergate, which 
is the best place to debark for those who design to visit Chats- 
worth, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Devonshire, and 
Haddon Hall, the decayed castle residence of the Dukes of 
Rutland. An omnibus conveyed me with others to Matlock, 
a curious old watering place, not as much frequented as for- 
merly. The master of the Royal Hotel is quite too much of 
a gentleman to attend to his guests ; he leaves them to the 
tender mercies of boots and a few females who know nothing 
beyond their noses ; mine host hires conveyances to strangers 
who wish to visit the neighbourhood ; but like the Persian 
lady who had her pulse examined through a hole in the door, 
he expected you should negotiate through the waiters. Not 
feeling disposed to pay ten dollars for " a one-horse shay" for 
less than a day, I sent for him, but the reply was that he was 
engaged ! 

I sallied out therefore to see the exhibition-rooms of the 



ENGLAND. 157 

spar factories, for which Derbyshire is celebrated and Mat- 
lock especially noted, and to look for a coach that was less 
costly ; the latter I procured for half the " Royal" charges, 
and bargfained for it on the assurance of the owner that a 
guinea was to be the whole charge. I mention this now, and 
will relate the result, to show how these things are managed, 
for the edification of Americans in future. I had already 
been provoked several times, to find the postilion was to be 
paid by me, and I bargained this time with the express under- 
standing that the coach-owner was to pay him and all ex- 
penses except the tolls, 

Matlockdale, in which the village of Matlock-Bath stands, 
is surrounded on each side by steep rocks, rising sometimes 
three hundred feet in height, and somewhat picturesque. 
Mineral springs abound ; the water is brought into some of 
the lodging-houses, which are singularly grouped in the sides 
of the hills; caverns, and lead mines, petrifying wells, and 
scenery, afford numerous excursions of considerable interest to 
the idlers, who delight in collecting the various specimens of 
fiuor spar that abound. The mineralogist may find occupa- 
tion and instruction here. 

The museums or exhibition-rooms of spar ornaments, are 
the richest-looking shops I have ever seen. The semi-trans- 
parent and various-coloured substance is cut by artists into a 
variety of exquisite forms ; among others into correct but 
greatly reduced representations of Egyptian obelisks, having 
the hieroglyphic characters accurately delineated on the 
sides, for a guinea each ; even whole tables are neatly and 
firmly wrought from it ; tables with chess-boards, the squares 
of white and blue spar, are very handsome, the cost from fifty 
to eighty dollars. Here is another demand upon the purse 
difiicult to resist. 

Haddon Hall, eight miles distant, cannot fail greatly to in- 
terest the tourist ; it was formerly inhabited by the Dukes of 
Rutland, but is now in course of extremely slow decay, the 
family taking pains to prevent its total demolition by occa- 

VOL. II. 14 



158 ENGLAND. 

sional repairs. It continues to afford a complete picture of an 
ancient baronial residence without a single modern thing 
about it, nothing being of a later date than the sixteenth cen- 
tury : the gallery was erected in the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth ; all the principal rooms are hung with a kind of tapestry 
or loose arras, which still remains swinging loosely from the 
walls, and concealing the doors of the rudest fashion — " the 
iron-hasped and loosely-bolted doors." The fashion of many 
of the rooms marks the vast improvement which has been 
made in modern dwellings, and warrants the assertion that our 
mechanics in America live in more comfortable houses, better 
sealed, lighted, and warmed, and ventilated, than the barons 
of Queen Elizabeth, or indeed than the Queen herself One 
of the chimney-places has the old fire-dogs in them, marking 
the period before the introduction of coal. Some ancient 
mouldy pictures still hang on the walls : the old kitchen and 
pastry-cook's room remain in a state of extreme rudeness ; the 
seats around of stone ; a half door into the great kitchen was 
always shut to keep the servants elsewhere employed from 
intruding ; the meats were banded over this ; the very meat- 
blocks used three hundred years since are in their places, and 
the great stone salt-box ; the lobby for the poor to wait in, and 
the door through which they received the bounty of bread and 
ale dispensed to all who applied, are still perfect. 

The change to the present luxurious accommodations, though 
even here there is evidence of gradual improvements, is in- 
deed immense, and in nothing is this more striking than in 
the quantity of light admitted to the rooms; the windows are 
small, ceilings low, architecture every where rude ; the little 
furniture that still hangs together is of the same character, 
except a cradle of some centuries old, which is neat and 
graceful and in tolerable preservation. Some old boots pre- 
served with care would by their weight and solidity astonish 
a Parisian dandy with their broad high heels. A very thick 
buckskin shirt, such as was universally worn under armour, 
similar to one hanging in Warwick Castle, and other relics of 



ENGLAND. 159 

the domestic times of past centuries, are among the odds and 
ends shown by the dame in silk, who makes a handsome 
fortune by the great number of visiters. 

In one of the arras chambers is the state-bed in which 
Queen Bess slept when she visited the Hall ; it has some of 
the old quilts under which her majesty reclined ; the visiter 
is kept from relic stealing by a railing. I asked an intelligent 
little boy, who had been deputed to accompany me while his 
mother waited on a new party just arrived, if there were no 
goblins here, to ascertain in what light he viewed the old 
ruin : " Oh — yees — a plenty — this is all gobelin,''^ he replied, 
as he seized a piece of the old tapestry. 

The old garden is not of great extent, but has terraces one 
above another, each with a stone carved balustrade. The old 
yews and other trees have been left to take their own shapes, 
and look as wild and out of trim as any original forest trees. 
The tower was undergoing repair; it had arrived at a state 
when demolition or reparation was indispensable.* 

The Duke comes here occasionally, from his newer Belvoir 
Castle, and has a shooting box in the neighbourhood. The 
farmer has a fancy for antique furniture, and is proud to ex- 
hibit his acquisitions. An old carved bedstead he has con- 
verted, by using the best portions, into a highly varnished 
and certainly very curious mantel-piece ; old repaired chairs, 
and sofas, and sideboards, have an odd spruced-up air, which 

* " William the Norman, who was liberal in parcelling out the good 
things of the conquered realm among his relatives and adherents, gave 
this spot to his natural son Peveril, Thence, by marriage, it descended 
to the Vernons, and again, in the same manner, to the house of Man- 
ners, who now hold the Dukedom of Rutland * * * The various im- 
provements made by the Vernons and Mannerses may be plainly traced, 
the first of which obtained possessionof this baronial mansion in the time 
of Henry the Sixth, and the latter during the reign of Elizabeth. So 
liberal was the housekeeping of Haddon, that one hundred and forty 
servants were retained and employed here, by the first Duke of Rut- 
land, in the time of Queen Anne, Now all is silence and loneliness 
within its bounds." 



160 ENGLAND. 

gives them a look of being quite out of their element. Next 
to Chatsworth. 

Yours, &.C. 



LETTER LXXIII. 



Interesting neighbourhood — Newstead Abbey, &c. — Chatsworth; the 
mode of showing it — Fees — Princely establishment — Pictures and 
statues — Conservatory — Green-house — The great fountain — The 
Duke — Earl of Burlington — Cricket — Secret history of the Duke of 
Devonshire — The rock-work — Visit of the Queen — Extortion at- 
tempted. 

You are now in a most interesting neighbourhood. From 
Matlock, excursions are made to Newstead Abbey, the seat 
of the Byrons, occupied by Colonel Wildman ; — to Dove 
Dale, one of the most celebrated places for scenery in Eng- 
land, besides a great number of private grounds ; Sir Richard 
Arkwright's property is in the vicinity, and the Druidical re- 
mains at Arbor Law, as well as other attractions, which fre- 
quently detain visiters for weeks. J was, however, pressed 
for time, and pushed on for Chatsworth, in order to gain the 
Chesterfield station sufficiently early to lodge in Sheffield. 

Chatsworth, too, was one of the domains given by William 
the Conqueror to Peveril ; it was purchased in the reign of 
Elizabeth, by Sir W. Cavendish, who commenced a house 
which was finished by his widow, the famous Dachess of 
Shrewsbury. The magnificent building was erected in 1702, 
by the first Duke of Devonshire ; the present possessor, now 
growing old, has embellished it with many grand improve- 
ments. On driving up to the principal entrance, a lackey, in 
silk stockings and laced hat, conducts you through an arcade- 



ENGLAND. 161 

'kind of passage to the house-keeper, and expects a fee : the 
house-keeper shows the very curious chapel, and looks for a 
larger piece of money; she hands you over to a maid-servant, 
who exhibits the pictures and statuary, holds out her open 
palm for a douceur, and hands you over to a gardener, who 
shows the green-house and grounds, and looks hard for his 
wages ; so that before an American has got over his provoca- 
tion and humiliation at being placed in such positions, he is 
squeezed out of a sum, which, as every successive party pays 
as largely, seems as if it must either enrich the Duke i or 
save him from paying much in wages ; — but it really goes to , 
the house-keeper, who is extremely wealthy. 

It is proper, in a foreign country, to make allowances for 
difference of customs and education ; but I never could recon- 
cile it with my ideas of correct thinking, that a man with a 
princely income should consent to such a mode of exhibition. 
An American, with a place worthy of being shown, would feel 
himself humiliated by allowing such fees to be taken, and 
still more by the sordid imputation ; he would either close 
his house and grounds, or let it be seen without fee; the 
Duke of Devonshire does not lose caste by his own country- 
men saying, every where and to every body, that he saves the 
wages of his attendants by his winking at their exactions ; 
these amount to half a guinea for a single visiter, and more 
for a party. The only answer I can give is, to return my 
very humble thanks to the Duke for liberty to see his es- 
tablishment on any terms ; — for truly it is worth the annoy- 
ance encountered, and it is worth in addition what you have 
to pay. The price is well known, and if you go, you must 
pay just as at any exhibition advertised for a price. 

For the establishment of a person not a king, Chatsworth 
will strike you as every way magnificent ; paintings of rare 
excellence adorn the walls and corridors; the rooms are 
princely in extent and furniture, and the statue-gallery re- 
markable for its size and the beauty of its contents ; the 
library extensive, and remarkably well filled with the choicest 

14* 



1 62 ENGLAND. 

works of taste and art. Canova, Thorwaldsen, Chantrey, 
Westmacott, and other sculptors of great merit, have laboured 
to produce sentiment in marble for the gallery, and have 
eminently succeeded. The conservatory in the house is the 
most elegant thing of its kind you can possibly imagine. 

But if we admire the conservatory within, how admirable 
must the great green-house, covering an entire acre, appear? 
It is so large as to admit the Duke's coach and four to drive 
throug'h the centre, each side of the road being occupied by 
Eastern plants, such as palms ; the drive is thus in a warm 
climate and among tropical productions. We may next hear 
of some gentleman hunting the tiger in his own glass-jungle! 
The glass of this green-house is on the " ridge and furrow" 
system, which gives greater strength than by the old plan of 
glazing, but it does not admit of sliding-tops ; to obviate this 
difficulty, a system of ventilation has been adopted which 
answers tolerably well ; air is fanned in at the base of the 
house, and it passes out at openings in the top ; water is em- 
ployed for heating. The plants appeared to be in excellent 
condition and of great variety ; I had a thousand questions 
to ask here, but the uncommunicative cicerone I was unfor- 
tunate to procure in his turn, seemed to think I was getting 
enough by the eye alone. 

The great fountain commenced playing while I was in the 
green-house, to nearly the height of two hundred and seventy 
feet ; as a single jet it is the greatest in the world, as the 
following comparison will show : 

The Emperor, at Chatswortb, height of jet^ - 267 feet. 

Wilhelm Fountain, in Hesse Cassel, - - 190 " 

Fountain, St. Cloud, 160 " 

Peterhoof, Russia, ------ 120 " 

The old Chatsworth, 94 " 

Versailles, 90" 

The Emperor is indeed a magnificent fountain , it seems 



E N b L A N D. 163 

to be forced up by some giant power, occasionally surpassing 
its own usual flow by a powerful effort to mount to the sky. 
Its spray is forced by a high wind to so great a distance, as to 
oblige the proprietor to close the exhibition, except in calms. 

The Duke was at home, and the next heir to the estate, 
the Earl of Burlington, was here on a visit with his large 
family. The gentlemen were all engaged, with some of the 
gardeners, in a game of cricket in the park ; the number of 
gardeners and men employed on the grounds near the house 
is one hundred and thirty, so that a game can always be com- 
manded. 

I am not aware that the following particulars have ever 
appeared in print in America, nor am I quite certain that it 
will be considered proper to print them ; but as the story is 
constantly alluded to in English society of respectability, and 
is generally believed, I can see no reason why I should not 
relate it, as an anecdote to illustrate the position of a fellow- 
being who appears to the eye to be possessed of every thing 
the world can give. The wealthy Duke of Devonshire is 
said not to be the real Duke, but a changeling. Long ago, 
an ancient lady is said to have been in possession of facts, 
which would prove beyond a doubt that there was foul play, 
and that the rightful heir was made way with by collusion in 
the sick-room ! 

A suit was to be brought, an unpleasant popularity at all 
events was to be obtained, and possibly the person in possession 
might be dispossessed. Under such circumstances, a treaty 
with the Burlington family was completed, by which the 
present Duke stipulated if he were left in quiet, he would 
spend the principal part of his income on the estates, and 
never marry, so that at all events, the title and property vv'ould 
at his dea.th descend to the Earl of Burlington. He has kept 
his agreement and is still a bachelor, and on good terms with 
the next comers ; he has also expended his great income so 
as to benefit his successors, making Chatsworth one of the 
most superb private residences in Europe. 



164 ENGLAND. 

The house is situated in a valley, quite too low for our ideas 
of beauty ; shelter and warmth have thus been obtained, as well 
as the command of a most remarkable water-power for orna- 
mental purposes, from a lake on the heights behind the house. 
It descends a long range of steps, somewhat like the water 
at St. Cloud, and bubbles up in various jets ; in the great hall 
of the mansion, it murmurs from the marble-mouths of lions 
into exquisite basins, with a sound reminding you of the 
poetical descriptions of the Moorish Alhambra. The artifi- 
cial rock-work, beneath the mountain, exceeds in cost and 
extent any thing of the kind in Europe, but it is, after all, 
artificial ; when the shrubbery planted about and on it has 
had time to mature, the scene may look more like nature ; 
at present it seems a waste of treasure. Queen Victoria was 
entertained here magnificently some years since, when she 
planted a tree to commemorate her visit, which will probably 
outlive her great-great-grandchildren : I picked you a leaf 
from its principal limb. 

At the Chesterfield station, my postilion insisted upon 
having a fee half as great as the charge for the conveyance, 
and threatened me with the law when I assured him I had 
bargained and paid for him and his horse; this he denied, and 
a scene was rapidly growing, when the rail-cars whisked me 
out of the power of his attempted extortion. 

As ever, &c. 



ENGLAND. 165 



LETTER LXXIV. 

Sheffield— Luggage— Nobility— Lackeys— Rogers' cutlery — Grinding 
and polishing — Unhealthy occupation — Silver plating — Rail to York 
— Wails invaded— Birthplace of Constantino — History— The Cathe- 
dral—Castle of William L— Clifford's Tower— Ruins of St. Mary's 
Abbey — Newcastle on Tyne — Cold reception — English hotels — Start 
for Melrose through the moors — Jedburg. 

From Chesterfield to Sheffield requires another change of 
rail and consequently baggage, and another to a cab to get to 
the hotel. I had unfortunately brought all my trunks, and 
was consequently not a little annoyed with the care of them ; 
travellers making a tour to Scotland, before leaving Europe 
for America, which is a common thing to do, should despatch 
their trunks to their agent in Liverpool, and take nothing but 
a carpet-bag, both on account of the economy and the con- 
venience. Nabobs with whole families still filled every suc- 
cessive train, emigrating to their estates in the north ; they 
do not now travel with the simplicity of the patriarchal ages, 
but seem to have quite as many attendants. In one of the 
third class coaches was a whole bevy of lackeys in their dis- 
tinguishing dress, taking great liberties with a. bottle of wine, 
the fumes of which made them very merry. Their master 
caught them tippling and dashed the bottle on the rail. The 
" hareem" servants had separate rooms ; the dogs were de- 
posited every where. 

Sheffield continues to prosper in the cutlery line, but ap- 
pears to be a sadly dull town ; I missed the object of my 
visit to it by being a day too late to meet a friend known in 



166 ENGLAND. 

America, — very soon despatched a tour of Rogers' celebrated 
manufactories and show-rooms, where temptations in the 
shape of silver and cutlery are difficult to resist, — passed an 
hour or two in the grinding and polishing rooms among a set 
of artisans, not one in a hundred of whom live to the age of 
forty-five, owing to the unhealthiness of their employment,— 
visited the silver plating manufactories, and in the morning 
pursued my route to York. 

The railroad has impudently pushed its modern nose 
through the old walls of this ancient city, said to have been 
founded a thousand years before the birth of Christ ; the 
walls are three miles in circumference, having a delightful 
promenade on the top of them, from whence numerous parties 
of ladies and gentlemen leisurely surveyed our turmoil of 
procuring baggage and conveyances. 

York is two hundred miles from London, and an equal 
distance firom Edinburgh ; the birthplace of Constantino, the 
successive inhabitants have witnessed a series of historical 
events and reverses, in which the annals of Agricola, Adrian, 
Severus, the wars of the Roses, Prince Rupert, Prince Arthur, 
Henry the Third, and Edward the Second ; — Scot, Pict, Dane, 
Roman, Saxon, and Norman, mingle in the memory of a long 
series of world struggles ; sieges and rapacity have ended 
beneath its walls ; iron cannon pointed against its noble Min- 
ster are now succeeded by iron roads, marking the age of utili- 
tarianism and peace instead of war and rapine. The celebrated 
Insane Asylum of York, so well conducted under the auspices 
of a Tuke, would be the proper receptacle of the first blood- 
thirsty warrior who should attempt to disturb the healthful 
repose that now reigns where William the Conqueror planted 
his armies for six months, until famine compelled the inhabi- 
tants to submission. 

The cathedral is called the finest Gothic building of the 
kind in Europe, but Catholic cathedrals devoted to the service 
of the Church of England, have lost the characteristics for 
which cathedrals are distinguished, in the worship for which 



ENGLAND. 167 

they were erected, and they have a cold, unoccupied air, 
which is not in keeping with their architecture. Eminently 
thus is it with that of York ; it has the grandeur of construc- 
tion and proportions, but it wants the " expression of purpose" 
which those on the Continent possess ; the heart seems to 
have evaporated, leaving the skeleton behind ; as a building, 
it is so impressive, however, as to give one the idea of a 
grand cathedral as well as any one 1 have seen on the Conti- 
nent, and may satisfy those travellers who have gone no 
farther. It is clean compared with the German or French 
places of worship ; it has much painted glass, is again in 
good repair after its disasters from fire, but it is deficient in 
the number and variety of ancient monuments and altars 
which distinguish the buildings of the kind on the Continent. 
You search in vain for the names of distinguished princes, 
emperors, kings, statesmen, poets, and warriors, who have 
made the rivers of history ring with their deeds. 

The cold cathedral worship twice in each day, with indif- 
ferent choristers and priest chaunting their business-like, 
misnamed devotions, is to me little less solemn than the 
Catholic ritual ; the number of people who attend on week- 
days would be very small, but for the presence of travellers 
and tourists, who all seem to stop at York for the view of 
the cathedral, and the antiquities around. 

The most interesting of the latter are the castle originally 
built by William I., and now better employed as a jail ; — the 
ruins of Cliflford's Tower, said to have been raised by the Ro- 
mans ; — but above all the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, standing 
in meek submission to the fate which the tooth of time inevi- 
tably works, but still in melancholy, beautiful preservation. 
It is within the bounds of the Yorkshire museum grounds, a 
place very creditable to the town, the population of which 
is less than thirty thousand. There are many excursions of 
interest made in the neighbourhood, and altogether, York, 
with its many excellent citizens, its quaint old houses, and 
its well-managed public institutions, much like our own in 



168 ENGLAND. 

Philadelphia, with every modern improvement, is a place to 
detain a seeker after truth. 

The railroad is completed towards Edinburgh as far as 
Newcastle upon Tyne, where I arrived about ten o'clock at 
night, and came very near being compelled to sleep in an 
omnibus, for all the hotels were filled ; in the first place the 
number of passengers for the moors had been so great all day 
that the trains had ceased to be punctual to their time-tables, 
and we were an hour beyond the usual period of arrival ; no 
" jarveys" of any kind greeted us with invitations to ride — not 
even an omnibus appeared to rescue us in the rain ; so that 
after hiring boys to run to stables, exhausting our patience by 
sitting on trunks for an hour and listening to anathemas loud 
and long from suffering people, who, had this occurred in 
America, would have deemed it an evidence of want of civi- 
lization, we got an omnibus or two to take pity on our forlorn 
state, and drag us round the town to be regularly refused at 
all but one poor hotel. 

These English hotels are generally on a small scale, of 
contents sufficient only to receive twenty or thirty guests ; 
this great railroad has brought down more people than ever 
was known or anticipated. They cannot go further, except 
by coach, and coaches are not expansible. The inquiries of 
those anxious to get forward in the morning, were answered 
— that the seats in the Chevy Chase, and the Quicksilver, 
and the Tally-ho, were all engaged, and here we were likely 
to be detained. A fee, however, secured me a seat on the 
Melrose coach, the best one for those to take who would visit 
Abbotsford. 

The ride was an agreeable one, so far as rain would permit, 
occasionally through the moors, where not a single tree 
exists, and where man himself seems to be proscribed ; hea- 
ther, fit for little but preserves for pheasants, or the browsing 
of sheep, covers the hills and desolate low grounds ; though 
the eighth of August, I was glad to add to my three coats 
the comforts of a Tweed shawl, the universal fixture of Scot- 



ENGLAND. 169 

tish travellers, and worn frequently by labourers. When 
fairly in Scotland, with the Cheviot Hills on the right, the 
language announcing our proximity to a new people, I began 
to warm with feelings of pleasing anticipation at the prospect 
of a pilgrimage to Dryburgh Abbey, Melrose, and Abbots- 
ford, the latter especially one of the principal objects of my 
journey to the North. I was anxious to see the study of the 
poet, novelist, and historian, who had whiled away so many 
of my hours, and who has left the impress of his mind upon 
the generation of which I am an integral member. We 
passed the old town and ruin of Jedburg, but had little time 
to inspect it. 

Yours, &c. 



VOL. II. 15 



SCOTLAND. 



LETTER LXXV. 

Melrose. 

Melrose— My companion — Walter Scott, clothier — Melrose Abbey — 
Annoyance — Village in commotion — A caravan of animals — Female 
Van Amburgh — Sir Walter's advice to Lockhart — His death scene — 
The funeral — Dryburgh Abbey — Scott's grave. 

Fortunate has been my stay at Melrose; an agreeable 
gentleman on the coach, who hailed from London, informed 
me he was bound on a similar pilgrimage with myself to the 
home in which Sir Walter so much delighted ; that, more- 
over, he had an introduction to the house-keeper, who has a 
reputation for crustiness, being the bearer of a despatch and 
a present from one of her friends, a clerk in the Bank of 
England ; all his facilities he kindly offered to share with me. 
We drove into the village of Melrose, an old, but neat town, 
when the very iirst name we saw on a sign, was Scott ; a 
little further, and " Walter Scott, clothier," in gold letters, 
sounded familiar if it did not look poetical ; the town is full 
of Scotts, some of them no doubt proud to claim a kith and 
kin with the most eminent of the clan, and others who know 
not what a world's reputation he made himself. 

Packed away in closets of the little Melrose inn, so 
thronged with company that we are thankful to get stand- 
ing-room, I commenced writing on my knees for want of a 
table, but sallied out before dinner to get a peep of " fair 
Melrose" Abbey. Its approach is through a narrow lane, 
filled with children and old women, and the access to it is 
barred by a gate of considerable height, so that fees are 
necessary here, as every where that celebrity has been 

15* 



174 SCOTLAND. 

earned. An outside view, followed by a long; tarry within, 
a moonlight ramble in sight of it, and Sir Walter's descrip- 
tion, conned and now more readily understood, have been a 
gratification, such as I had long promised myself, but which 
I was now almost in the full fruition of Shall I spoil the 
poetry of my visit to Melrose 1 

No sooner had I ensconced myself in possession of my 
eight by ten room, and got a good coal-fire to warm my be- 
numbed frame (August weather !), than from my cranny of a 
window, I observed the village was in commotion. The 
rabble was all in the street, hatless and shoeless ; music, of a 
wild kind, came upon the breeze ; I thought of Prince Char- 
lie's entry into Glasgow, the Queen's visit to Scotland, Wil- 
liam the Conqueror, Roman legions, all in a moment ; but 
alas for the different occasion- that now presented itself!* 
From my window I am provoked to see a huge caravan of 
animals deploying so as to fix up their exhibition " for this 
night only," just where earshot of drums will most annoy us 
pilgrims to the land of " Scott." We have no remedy and 
must submit. I can read the flaming handbill from where I 
sit; a "Female Van Amburgh — the greatest woman lion- 
tamer that ever existed," is to enter the cages of wild beasts 
at eight o'clock, and then dance a hornpipe on a slack rope ! 
I have not Sir Walter's good nature so much developed as to 
enjoy the happiness of the blowsy Scotch boys, who are in 
raptures with the flags and the red paint; it is a curious 



* It might have recalled also the account of Scotl's visit to Melrose 
in company with Wordsworth, thus chronicled by Lockhart : " Scott 
WB.S, thus far on his way to the circuit court, at Jedburgh, in the capa- 
city of sheriff, and there his new friends again joined him : but he 
begged that they would not enter the court, ' for,' said he, ' I really 
would not like you to see the sort of figure I cut there !' They did see 
him casually, however, in his cocked hat and sword, marching in the 
Judge's procession, to the sound of one cracked trumpet; and were 
then not surprised, that he should have been a little ashamed of the 
whole ceremonial." 



SCOTLAND. 175 

contre-temp to a pilgrimage to old Melrose, to be thus 
hemmed in and be-musicked ! 



" O that some minstrel's harp was near, 
To utter tones of gladness, 
And chase this turmoil from the air, 
That fills my heart with sadness." 

Early in the morning, my companion with great difficulty 
roused a sleepy postilion, who had been all night engaged with 
the vile exhibition of beasts, and we set off on a pilgrimage to 
Dryburgh Abbey, on the estate of the Earl of Buchan, some six 
miles from Melrose, on the opposite side of the Tweed. 

And now as I travelled the road of the funeral of Sir Wal- 
ter, I began to feel that T was in the country he had illustrated 
to my youthful fancy^g^as if I were near him — enjoying in 
a less degree than in his v/orks, but in addition, a further 
communion with his bright intellect. How forcibly was 
every scene of that death-bed and funeral recalled, as described 
by the pen of Lockhart :-^" I found him entirely himself, 
though in the last extreme of feebleness. His eye was clear 
and calm — every trace of the wild fire of delirium extinguished. 
' Lockhart,' he said, ' I may have but a few minutes to speak 
to you. My dear, be a good man — be virtuous — be religious 
— be a good man. Nothing else will give you comfort when 
you come to lie here.' " * * * " About half past one, p. m., on 
the 21st of September (1832), Sir Walter breathed his last in 
the presence of all his children. It was a beautiful day — so 
warm that every window was open — and so perfectly still, 
that the sound of all others most delicious to his ear, the 
gentle ripple of the Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly 
audible as we knelt around his bed, and his eldest son kissed 
and closed his eyes." 

And then the funeral : — " The train of carriages extended, 
I understood, over more than a mile — the yeomanry followed 
in great numbers on horseback — and it was late in the day 



e?- 



176 SCOTLAND. 

ere we reached Dryburgh. Some accident, it was observed, 
had caused the hearse to halt for several minutes on the sum- 
mit of the hill at Bemerside — exactly where a prospect of 
remarkable richness opens, and where Sir Walter always had 
been accustomed to rein up his horse. The day was dark 
and lowering, and the wind high." On just such a day was 
my humble pilgrimage made to Dryburgh. Fitful gleams of 
sunshine struck through the clouds as we crossed the Tweed 
in a poor ferry-boat, for the bridge has been lately carried 
away ; and when we arrived at the Abbey, in charge of a 
young woman, a daughter of the Earl of Buchan's gardener, 
who shows the place, rain and wind must have made the 
weather such as on the day of the melancholy funeral. " The 
wide enclosure of the Abbey of Dryburgh," says Lockhart, 
" was thronged with old and young ; and when the coffin was 
taken from the hearse, and again laid |jn the shoulders of the 
afflicted serving-men, one deep sob burst from a thousand lips. 
Mr. Archdeacon Williams read the burial-service of the 
Church of England ; and thus, about half past five o'clock in 
the evening of Wednesday the 26th of September, the remains 
of Sir Walter Scott were laid by the side of his wife, in the 
sepulchre of his ancestors." 

I had often sighed over these passages, and longed to see 
the spot where reposed one of my dearest friends — one of the 
dearest friends of all humanity ; — who has cheered more 
drooping hearts, and beguiled more sombre minds, than any 
mere author that ever lived ; I was now gazing upon his 
grave ; — that unadorned, uninscribed grave " beside his wife ;" 
— the gratification of such a moment repaid me for all my 
toil, should even every other gratification of my journeyings 
be obliterated from memory. All that touches the heart of a 
wanderer at the grave of genius is here, and the scene is 
more impressive than if it were marked by a costly mauso- 
leum; — his true monument is in the admiration — in the 
hearts of his millions of admirers. 

Dryburgh Abbey is within the garden-grounds of the Earl 



SCOTLAND. 177 

of Buchan ; it is carefully preserved as the repository of such 
a treasure deserves to be. Sir Walter and his wife repose in 
St. Mary's Aisle, or crypt, from which the mouldering stones 
have detached themselves successively till there is no con- 
nexion with the rest of the Abbey ; but these walls and arches 
look now firm and durable as if they would continue for ages. 
A neat iron railing prevents the spectator from desecrating 
the two graves, which are without mark or stone ; eglantine 
and ivy mount above our heads, glittering with diamonds in 
the little gleam of sunshine; it was a pleasing scene for a 
wanderer from the far-off land of America ; — it was a melan- 
choly one, knowing, as we know, that we gaze upon the 
grave of a good, but a disappointed man ; not disappointed in 
the world's admiration, but so eminently in his great ambition 
©f founding a family. 

Yours, &c. 



LETTER LXXVI. 

Grounds of Dryburgh — Abbotsford — Situation — Reception — American 
visiters the most numerous except Scotch — Hall of entrance — Rob 
Roy's gun, &c. — Chantrey's bust — The dining-room — Library — 
Scott's study — Clothes — Dogs gone — The French flag — Trees of Sir 
Walter's planting — ^The Tweed — Invited to lodge at Abbotsford — 
Letter from the present Sir Walter from India — Indifferent to the 
literary fame of his father — A great nephew of Sir Walter's a steam- 
boat captain. 

The grounds of Dryburgh, where the Earl of Buchan has 
a summer residence, are a combination of park, garden, and 
orchard scenery ; the dwelling is not large, but every thing 
connected with the exterior marks the gentleman proprietor ; 



178 SCOTLAND. 

the Abbey, which is a most valuable addition to the demesne, 
if it were only considered in a picturesque light, is well cared 
for ; repair has prevented the further ravages of time ; long" 
may it continue to gratify the minds of pilgrims to its shrine. 
The after part of the day was devoted to Abbotsford. The 
scenery about Melrose is eminently peaceful, with no very 
striking natural beauties, except those which well-cultivated 
fields and comfortable dwellings impart; the hills are not 
very commanding, and the Tweed is but, to our eyes, a creek. 
Abbotsford — shall I say it — somewhat disappointed me as a 
building; its situation, as you approach from the road, appears 
low, and it really is so ; you look down upon it towards the 
Tweed, into a valley which seems formerly to have been in- 
vaded by the water ; indeed this has been the case, for the 
stables, at some little distance, have been not unfrequently 
so much flooded as to make it necessary to remove the 
horses. 

We were kindly received by the housekeeper, and my 

o companion's letter and packet delivered, we were made quite 
at home. The lady, who has obtained some undesirable cele- 
brity on account of her hasty manner, and whom the Scotch 

do not like to see in possession because she is an English- 
woman, seemed glad of the opportunity of displaying her 
charge ; it was some surprise to find in the book for visiters* 
names, and by her own assertion, that more Americans visit 

O Abbotsford than English ; the Scots are the most numerous, 
and Americans and French rank next. How is this ? I am 
under the full conviction that he has more readers in Ame- 
rica than in England ; but considering the smallness of the 
number of our countrymen who travel to Scotland, it is as- 

6> tonisbing that we should outnumber in this particular the 
whole English people. 

The hall of entrance is small, but full of objects of interest, 
such as coats of mail, and armorial insignia; the armory with 
Rob Roy's gun, and a thousand things which Sir Walter's 
tastes had brought together, many of them presents from far-off 



SCOTLAND. 179 

countries, remains just as he arranged it. America contri- 
buted her share of Indian battle-axes, moccasins, &c. 

The marble bust of the poet by Chantrey is a superb work 
of art ; the vase presented by Lord Byron, from which some 
visiter stole the autograph note of the donor, was a gift 
worthy of its author. It was a beautiful evidence of the 
attachment felt by his fellow-men for the novelist, that so 
many great as well as humble individuals felt compelled to 
forward their several tributes ; far more valuable are such 
evidences when they come to genius, than tributes to power 
which may reward the gift. 

Tlie dining-room furnished in part with the ebony escri- 
toire and chairs presented by George the Fourth, and the 
library, well filled with books and a few pictures, detained us 
as long as we thought it right to keep our attentive cicerone 
in waiting. The books are in the same order as when the 
proprietor occupied it ; they are carefully taken down once a 
year, by a bibliopole from Edinburgh, dusted, and replaced. 
The whole house has an air of desertion ; it is but too evident 
that the master spirit has departed, and the heart is sickened 
with the thought; this feeling is increased to melancholy 
when you come to Sir Walter's snug little study, surrounded 
by books, with his writing table and chair, and in a little 
closet the clothes he last wore ; they have been carefully 
brushed and ironed, and placed in a glass case ; his walking- 
sticks are hung above. I inquired if there were any descen- 
dants of Maida, or any of his favourite dogs ; they too are all 
gone. The descriptions of the interior are numerous and 
too fresh upon your memory, to make additions desirable. 

D'Arlincourt's account of the flag taken at Waterloo is 
disingenuous and erroneous; he states that he discovered 
the error in the French inscription, which proves it to have 
been manufactured by the English. This error is so apparent 
that it never could have escaped the poorest French scholar ; 
the words cent cinquieme, — one hundred and fifth — in figures 
ought to have been written thus : lOSeme, the little letters 



180 SCOTLAND. 

erne being indispensable. The two last letters of the word 
Mih are there instead of the three last of the word cinquieme. 
Sir Walter never pretended that it was taken at the battle of 
Waterloo, but said it was given to him ; no doubt it was a 
" clean copy" presented to him to accompany his other curio- 
sities that were taken at that famous battle. A Frenchman 
does not like to hear that there ever was a battle of Waterloo. 

The husband of the housekeeper accompanied us round 
the garden and grounds ; the trees are all of Sir Walter's 
planting, and may be said to have attained about half their 
natural size ; his son allows no one to cut down a single 
sapling in his absence, and the consequence is that there are 
too many ; they are growing as thick together as in an Ame- 
rican forest, and would be improved by judicious thinning. 
The weather came on to rain while we were wandering on 
the banks of the Tweed, or sitting in Sir Walter's favourite 
arbour, around which rank weeds have almost obtained the 
mastery ; another evidence, if evidence were wanting, of the 
absence of the master ; we were obliged to leave this scene 
of Sir Walter's own formation, and take shelter in the man- 
sion ; approaching it from the river, the house looks much 
better, because there is greater elevation ; here it quite 
realizes the usual picture ; on the exterior there is much iron 
work, and sundry of those odds and ends from old buildings — 
the Tolbooth door, &c. 

Re-entering the formerly hospitable mansion, the lady in- 
vited us to stay all night and lodge under Sir Walter's own 
roof! ! — an honour we were obliged to decline, or to miss our 
stage for Edinburgh in the morning. While we were chat- 
ting, she informed us that for a long time she had not heard 
from the present Sir Walter, who is with his regiment in 
India, but that the mail of to-day had just brought her a packet 
from him with injunctions and directions respecting Abbots- 
ford ; she has heard an intimation that on his return, which 
might be soon, he proposes making the place his home. 

All the poet's children are gone, save the present baronet, 



SCOTLAND. 181 

now a middle-aged man, and he is childless ! There are 
people who tell you he is indifferent to the name he bears, 
even to the point of disliking any allusion to the literary 
honours of his father. If this be so, there would seem almost 
a fitness that the name should not be kept alive on the land 
the poet purchased so dearly by his toil. To all appearance, 
Mr. Lockhart's son will ultimately become the master of 
Abbotsford. 

As I am talking- of the poet's relatives, I may mention the 
fact related in Mrs. Ash ton Yates's " Letters from Switzer- 
land." There the lady fell in with a great nephew of Sir 
Walter Scott, a grandson she says of John, but it must have 
been Thomas ; — be this as it may, the youth, it appears, had 
received the education of an engineer, and the fortunes of 
his family having fallen, owing to long and vexatious law- 
suits, was, in 1841, commanding a little steamer on the lake 
of Brienz ;--having not, up to that moment, the lady further 
tells us, fallen in with Lockhart's biography — if even aware 
of its existence ! Fame again ! but how unaccountable ! 

Yours, &c. 



VOL. II. 16 



182 SCOTLAND. 



LETTER LXXVI I. 

Lockhart ; his appearance ; his daughter ; — Rumour— The Quarterly 
Review; its contributors — Croker — Mr. Milraan — Mr. Hayward — 
Mr. Kinglake, author of Eothen — Lord Strangford — Hon. Mr. Smythe 
— " Young England" — Miss Rigby — Mrs. Austin — Sir Walter's in- 
fluence ; his guests — Laidlaw — Melancholy reflections— Melrose 
Abbey — The clock — Reflections among the ruins — Duke of Buc- 
cleugh — Scotch boy — Thomas, the Rhymer — The poet Thomson. 

Abbotsford is, rather than London, the place to talk of 
Lockhart, in whose biography of his father-in-law, there is so 
much just appreciation of his character, and so true a por- 
traiture of its internal life and spirit. He is a very handsome, 
middle-aged man, tall, thin, dark — and his finely-cut features 
wearing a pensive, sarcastic air. He appears in the beau 
monde but seldom ; with a very lovely and patrician girl on 
his arm — hovering on the skirt rather than forming the cen- 
tre of some group of literary or distinguished people; he is 
not approached very nearly by many — probably I might say 
by any — save, perhaps, some old Scottish friends. It was 
said for some eighteen months or more (a long time for a 
rumour to run in London), that he was about to carry off the 
great fortune of Miss Burdett Coutts ; — but that rumour has 
blown over : — perhaps began to do so from the moment when 
it was seen that he was " bringing out" an elegant daughter. 

Mr. Lockhart, you know, continues to edit the Quarterly 
Review, respecting the writers in which you have expressed 
some curiosity ; if not in ability, at least in attractive matter, 



SCOTLAND. 183 

it continues to take the lead, and when that is the case men 
are anxious to know about the contributors. Mr. Croker used 
to write the bitter political articles — on Irish affairs, or French 
revolutionary history, for example ; or whenever, with true 
Tory chivalry, it was thought necessary to massacre and mal- 
treat a woman ; but he is now getting old, — possibly good- 
natured (though that were hard to credit) ! At all events, 
his star is no longer in the ascendant, and his influence no 
longer so apparent as formerly. The temper of the Review 
has not changed, but the taste of the times has, in some de- 
gree, and one must conform — venom is less marketable than 
formerly ; so that lago's occupation is in some small measure 
gone. I presume that the Rev. Mr. Milman is a far steadier 
contributor to the Quarterly, chiefly on subjects of history 
and belles-lettres. Mr. Hayward, the prose-translator of 
Faust, was for a long time known (thanks to his own efforts 
to spread the fact) as the writer of the light, saucy, sarcastic 
articles which so long relieved " the d^ead weight" of the 
Review ; but he has not long since transferred his budget of 
small wit to the Edinburgh — and his loss may be said to be 
supplied, with infinite gain to the periodical, by Mr. Kinglake, 
the brilliant author of " Eothen." Every now and then, it is 
asserted by those who know, that Lord Strangford contributes 
a historical article ; especially if the subject give scope to 
his diplomatic reminiscences — and of late. Lord Strangford's 
son, the Hon. Mr, Smythe, member for Canterbury, a far bet- 
ter speaker, my literary friends say, than he is a writer ; he 
is one of the anomalous party, calling itself " Young Eng- 
land :" his " Historic Fancies," a collection of flimsy and 
tumid sketches in prose and verse, have excited more sur- 
prise than pleasure ; then (a strange apparition in such a 
company of woman-haters as the Quarterly Reviewers are 
considered), there is Miss Rigby, the accomplished authoress 
of the " Letters from t|ie Baltic," one of the tallest and hand- 
somest of the sisterhood ; and whose powers as an amateur 
artist are remarkable even in these days of amateur art : she 



184 SCOTLAND. 

has written on Russia — on books for children, and, it is sus- 
pected, the article on " Lady Travellers." I believe she is 
the only Reviewer-ess on their staff— shall we say pendant, 
or antagonist, to the more profoundly learned and serious 
Mrs. Austin, whose articles on German literature, society, 
and education, have excited so much attention in the rival — 
or Edinburgh Review. 

But why prate of Lockhart in the neighbourhood of the 
residence of the author of my favourite of all Scott's works, 
the Antiquary ] Himself an admirer of the olden times, he 
did much to promote the restoration and preservation of old 
abbeys ; it is owing to his pen, I have no doubt, that the 
visiter sees many castles on the Continent so far repaired as 
to preserve them from further dilapidation ; it was Sir Wal- 
ter's advice that brought about the repairs of Melrose Abbey. 
Had the scenes of his birth-place and fancy been laid among 
the old castles of the Rhine, he would have had a much more 
romantic world to have brought to light ; though this neigh- 
bourhood has been the abode of abbots and warriors, and 
there are evidences of their residence left, it required the in- 
vention and genius of a true poet to invest with so much ro- 
mance a region that looks so common-place, and is filled with 
such common-place people. Scott, however, was not de- 
pendent upon any one spot for his mental companions any 
more than his personal ; he assembled the eminent people of 
former generations, to converse with and amuse his readers 
in all the veritude of reality; for his personal friends he 
commanded the best spirits of the day, literary, forensic, 
intellectual. Those were " days of giants," when Abbots- 
ford could command the society, as Lockhart declares, of all 
and every class, nay, was run down with titled or renowned 
visiters. What a feast to have been an unobserved guest 
here, as visiter after visiter of renown passed in review. Do 
you remember the account so graphically given of the hospi- 
talities of this now deserted mansion 1 If you do not, turn, 
as I have been doing this evening, to Lockhart's biography ; 



SCOTLAND. 185 

read at page 194 of volume second, the hints at the quality — 
the qualities — of the various persons who sought the roof of 
the author. After you have read of the titled and great, and 
the passage — " I turned over Mr. Lodge's Compendium of 
the British Peerage, and on summing up the titles which 
suggested to myself some reminiscence of this kind, I found 
them nearly as one out of six — I fancy it is not beyond the 
mark to add, that of the eminent foreigners who visited Eng- 
land, a moiety crossed the Channel mainly in consequence of 
the interest with which his writings had invested Scotland — 
and that the hope of beholding the man under his own roof, 
was the crowning hope of half that moiety ;" — I say, after 
sitting down in your study, to endeavour to think of any 
distinguished cotemporary who did not seek his society, and 
render his house almost an over-crowded hotel — read the con- 
cluding paragraph, as follows : — " To complete the oUa po- 
drida, we must remember that no old acquaintance, or family 
connexions, however remote their actual station or style of 
manners from his own, were forgotten or lost sight of. He 
had some, even near relations, who, except when they visited 
him, rarely, if ever, found admittance to what the haughty 
dialect of the upper world is pleased to designate exclusively 
2iS society. These were welcome guests, let who might be 
under that roof; and it was the same with many a worthy 
citizen of Edinburgh, habitually moving in the obscurest of 
circles, who had been in the same class with Scott at the 
High School, or his fellow-apprentice when he was proud of 
earning three-pence a page by his pen." 

The attachment which all felt for Scott, was the finest per- 
sonal tribute ever paid to genius ; all loved him, and he ap- 
pears to have had equally the art of charming with his tongue 
as with his pen, — a rare accomplishment; even domestic 
animals — dogs of course loved him, — but that even a hen, a 
pig, and his daughter's donkeys, " Hannah More and Lady 
Morgan, as Anne Scott had wickedly christened them," should 
have loved Sir Walter as they did — at whatever point we 

16* 



186 SCOTLAND. 

view him, there is the same bonhomie, the same lovable 
traits. Read these things, and say how lovely a world this 
might be if there were more who endeavoured to imitate the 
virtues he so eminently possessed. 

Read this delightful biography, and regret that you could 
not enjoy any of its scenes during the seven years of Sir 
Walter's greatest prosperity : would you not like to have 
been present when he and Sir Humphry Davy had their ha- 
bitual table-talk — on that evening when Lockhart records, " I 
remember William Laidlaw whispering to me, one night, 
when their ' wrapt talk' had kept the circle round the fire un- 
til long after the usual bedtime at Abbotsford — 'Gude pre- 
serve us ! this is a very superior occasion! Eh, sirs !' he added, 
cocking his eye like a bird, ' I wonder if Shakespeare and 
Bacon ever met to screw ilk other up V " Would you not 
give up a year or two of hum-drum to even remember such 
an evening ?" 

But these things have passed away, as we too must pass ; it 
has cheered, at the same time that it has sorrowed my path, 
to have visited the scene at Abbotsford. Melancholy feelings 
take possession of you there, and you are not a true disciple 
of literature if your eye is not moistened by a tear as you 
tread the scene you had so long wished to visit,, — for it is now 
tenantless; the first and last worldly ambition of Scott to 
found a distinct branch of an honourable family, to plant a 
lasting root, seems to be blasted ; his son-in-law says : " And 
when he had reached the summit of universal and unrivalled 
honour, he clung to this first love with the faith of a Paladin." 
If the present Sir Walter is succeeded by Lockhart's son, let 
us hope he will at least reside at this classical spot. Long 
may it continue to gratify the American pilgrim ; long may his 
"romance in stone and lime," every outline copied from some 
baronial edifice in Scotland, every roof and window blazoned 
with clan bearings, or the lion rampant gules, — or the heads 
of the ancient Stuart kings, be accessible to the admirers of 
the poet. 



SCOTLAND. 187 

The ruins of the church of Melrose Abbey remain the finest 
specimen of Gothic architecture and Gothic sculpture ever 
reared in Scotland ; the stone retains perfect sharpness, the 
chiselled ornaments as antire as when new. The other build- 
ing's being completely destroyed, these ruins alone are left to 
attest the ancient magnificence of this celebrated monastery. 
In the south wall of the nave are eight beautiful windows, 
each sixteen feet in height and eighth in breadth, having up- 
right muilions of stone with rich tracery ; no tv/o are alike ; 
they light eight small square chapels of uniform dimensions, 
which run along the south side of the nave and are separated 
from each other by thin partitions of wail or stone. The west 
end of the nave, and five of the chapels included in it, are 
now roofless ; but they continue to be the burial-places of the 
old families of the neighbourhood, who exercise their ancient 
rights in this particular with a pertinacity that we should 
scarcely understand, considering the ruinous nature that things 
have already assumed, and what they are tending to. One 
family, which had long disused its privilege of interment here, 
has lately proved its identity, and placed a new stone in one 
of the chapels. The other monuments and inscriptions are 
time-worn and often defaced, and sheep are feeding thought- 
lessly on the thick grass around. 

In 1618 a roof was thrown over the middle avenue for the 
purpose of making it into a parish church; this has injured the 
internal appearance, the repairs having made it lopsided. At 
the time it was used for this modern purpose, a bell was placed 
in one of the towers ; we ascended this tov^er in order to get 
upon the roof; while silently gazing around upon the weeds 
and flowers which have taken complete possession, we heard 
a gentle ticking, as if something possessed of life still ani- 
mated the old ribs of the chapel ; on examining the bell, we 
found a clock attached; it is of rude construction ; long since, 
its iron tongue ceased to ring out from its heights the substi- 
tute for the muezzin's call to prayer, but a patriotic feeling in 
some clock-maker or town baillie, has set the old machine in 



188 SCOTLAND. 

motion, and it now sounds the passing hour to the inhabitants 
of Melrose below, with great accuracy, — failing no doubt, as 
all familiar things are apt to do, to remind the hearer how time 
is fleeting. It served, however, to read a lesson to me on the 
brevity of life, and was a memento to remind me how many 
generations pass away in a period when stone walls made 
with men's hands hold their admired proportions to continued 
successors ; successors on whose habits of thought and action 
such remarkable travesties are wrought. Below us are the re- 
mains of a church where kail leaves* are one of the monkish 
ornaments of the columns ; abbots lie buried below the slowly 
decaying roof; warriors too, and many a venerable priest. 
The heart of Bruce is supposed to have been deposited here, 
after Douglas had made an unsuccessful attempt to carry it to 
the Holy Land ; and it interested me to know that one of my 
ancestors had been killed in that expedition during a foray 
with a Saracen. William Douglas, " the dark knight of Lid- 
disdale," with escutcheon tarnished by the barbarous murder 
of his companion Sir Alexander Ramsay, and James, second 
Earl of Douglas, lie here interred. Many of Scotland's 
proudest names occur on the tombstones ; but alderbushes, 
sheep, and birds which have built in the higher recesses, have 
added nothing to the cleanliness within. 

The Earl of Buccleugb acquired, about the beginning of 
the eighteenth century, the abbey lands included in the 
lordship of Melrose, which still form part of the extensive 
possessions of that noble family, who suffer no further depre- 
dations to be made upon it; formerly it was any body's privi- 
lege to hew out the stone for building houses ; much of the 
village has been thus erected ; it is only wonderful that any 



* The monks of Melrose made gude kail 
On Fridays, when they fasted, 
Nor wanted they good beef and ale. 
As lang's their neighbour's lasted. 

Old Ballad. 



SCOTLAND. 189 

thing remains. The present head of the family of Buccleugh 
has repaired the walls round the old graveyard, and he con- 
tracts with the person who has the fees for showing the ruins 
to keep it free from nuisances ; I cannot say he does his duty."*-' 
His son, a fine intelligent lad, who has made some progress in 
Latin, which he speaks with the broadest Scotch accent, re- 
plied to my question whether many Americans came to Mel- 
rose, with an emphatic "yes;" he added gratutiou'sly, that he 
could always tell Americans — because they always wanted to 
carry away a flower or a stone from the interior ; — he knew 
them too, he declared, by their accent. My companion, a 
Londoner, said one of us was from that far-off land, and de- 
manded to know which ; the boy had not the wit of Thomas 
the Rhymer, in whom, as in the mighty men of old 

" Tlje honour'd name 
Of prophet and of poet was the same, 

for he gave my cockney friend the credit of being a repub- 
lican. 

The remains of the Rhymer's Tower are still pointed out 
on the road to Dryburgh, and on a rising ground near the 
broken wire bridge, is a circular temple dedicated to the 
muses, surmounted by a bust of Thomson, the author of the 
" Seasons." On a height above, on a rocky eminence, is a 
colossal statue of the Scottish patriot Wallace. But I must 
leave this interesting neighbourhood. 

Yours, &c. 

* Melrose was closed some weeks last summer in consequence of 
depredations by visiters, but is again open under beUer regulations 
than in 1845. 



190 SCOTLAND. 



LETTER LXXVIII. 



Edinburgh. 



Abbotsford — Reflections — Galashiels — Tweed manafacture — Gan- 
ders-cleiigh — Hogg the poet — Moors — Approach to Edinburgh — 
Scotch hospitality — Sir Walter's monument — History of the architect, 
Kemp — Holyrood — The castle — JNuisance — The regalia — Story of the 
taking of the castle — Printing office of Robert Chambers — The pro- 
prietor—Descendants of the Stuarts — John Sobieski Stuart — Charles 
'Edward — Botanic and horticultural garden. 

I PARTED from Melrose and its neiglibourhood, so hallowed 
by genius, with sorrow and regret ; I felt as if I had conie 
too late — as if all the spirit of the scene had evaporated with 
the chief actor ; and yet that it was wrong to regret the latter 
career of the poet and novelist, when he had accomplished so 
great distinction ; had produced so much that had elevated 
the taste and softened the heart of the world. Every scene 
at Abbotsford, every room recurred to memory as we coursed 
the cold desolate moors on our route to Edinburgh, and es- 
pecially did I think of the hours of midnight toil passed by 
Sir Walter in his study ; when the visiters of the day believed 
he was asleep, he descended from his bed-room by a small pri- 
vate staircase to his desk, where the man of apparent leisure, 
produced, before his guests were astir, or after they w^ere 
asleep, his twelve volumes a year to delight every civilized 
nation. 

Not far from Abbotsford we passed the town of Galashiels, 



S O T L A ND. 191 

SO recently as in Sir Walter^s time a poor village of handloom 
weavers, but at present as smart and busy a town as any mo- 
dern manufacturing village in America. Mill upon mill has 
exhausted the water-power, and now they have abundance of 
machinery moved by steam ; nearly all this prosperity is the 
result of the successful manufacture of the article called 
Tweed ; some piece of clothing, either a shawl, pantaloons, 
or waistcoat, made of this material, is upon every man, wo- 
man, and child you meet; the beggar, most probably, who 
accosts you, has a Tweed shawl round his neck, and the 
richest traveller is also in the fashion ; the ladies never ride 
without one, to throw round their feet, or to turn the rain. 
A most useful and agreeable article is the Tweed. 

The weavers of Galashiels were proud to think that Sir 
Walter meant their town in his account of the imaginary 
" Ganders-cleugh," and they adopted the name. Their poet- 
laureate Thomson was in the habit of inviting his " brother 
bard" of Abbotsford to the annual festival of the weavers, 
where, with Hogg, he was a regular attendant ; the latter 
used to come down the night before, and accompany Sir 
Walter in the only carriage that graced the march ; many of 
Hogg's best ballads were produced for the first time amidst 
the cheers of the men of Ganders-cleugh. 

The weather of August still continued cold and wet ; the 
moors through which the road carried us, struck a winter 
feel through us whenever we passed them; hills without any 
trees, enclosure, or cultivation, mark much of the route ; a 
very scanty population and a poor one inhabit these desolate 
portions of Scotland, where a privileged individual delights 
in his right to shoot pheasants over hill and dale. " Who 
shoots here V is the frequent question of the English passen- 
gers on the top of the coach to the coachman. 

The approach to Edinburgh is without the poor and dirty 
suburbs usually encountered — you drive at once into a good 
town ; the dirt is in the centre, or old town. Established at 
the " Royal" in Princes', Street, I designed to make an ex- 



192 SCOTLAND. 

ploration of this celebrated place, but one of those storms, so 
detestable to a traveller, set in and continued almost without 
intermission for three days ; one of these days I passed in the 
delightful family of one of Scotia's most intellectual sons, in 
the full enjoyment of Scotch hospitality; the rain poured 
without — but a good fire blazed within. The next day, and 
' the next, were little better ; hurried visits to the castle, to 
Holyrood Palace, the Advocates' Library, Herriott's Hospital, 
and other public institutions, — a good dinner with social and 
kindred spirits, uttering broad Scotch, but with hearts warm 
to America, left me a little more leisure than usual to seclude 
myself and devote my pen to home. 

My window looks out upon the great Gothic monument 
erected to Sir Walter Scott, which is now finished with the 
exception of his statue ; this is in progress, and will occupy 
the centre. You know the prints of the monument ; if there 
is any exception to be taken to it, it is that the four legs or 
basements of the structure are too much expanded for the 
height; the space thus acquired will hold the statue, and 
when that is placed the objection may possibly vanish. 

The history of the architect of this monument, as told me 
by one of the committee, is an interesting one, and charac- 
teristic of the country I am in. Kemp was a poor boy, with- 
out patron, but received the education which every child in 
Scotland is entitled to. Apprenticed to a builder, he became 
enamoured of the study of architecture; when his apprentice- 
ship was over, he set off" to travel, in order to examine per- 
sonally the greatest Gothic buildings of Europe. He worked 
at his trade in each place just long enough to earn suflacient 
to proceed, studying as he progressed, and drinking in the 
beauties of his route. In this way he made the tour of 
Europe ; returned to Edinburgh, he married and pursued his 
avocation, passing his evenings in drawing and study. When 
an advertisement for proposals for a monument to Scott was 
issued, Kemp drew a plan and forwarded it under a fictitious 
name to the committee. Where patronage was supposed to 



SCOTLAND. 193 

be important, and where so many great architects competed 
for the prize, Itemp had no idea of succeeding', and thought 
little about his venture : — so little that he never inquired 
respecting it ; one evening his wife read a paragraph in 
Chambers's Journal, stating that the prize had been awarded 
to the fictitious name Kemp had employed, and sent with his 
plan, but that nobody knew or could find the successful candi- 
date ! Mrs. Kemp wondered, too, who it could be. 

Her husband kept his own counsel ; next day he claimed 
and received his reward. And now came the trying part of 
the affair. The committee decided that an unknown man, 
without capital or friends, should not have the workmanship ; 
the kind-hearted Duke of Buccleugh heard of this, called 
another meeting, and had sufficient influence to reverse the 
decision. Kemp obtained the contract, and immortalized 
himself; another chapter in the history of the pursuit of 
knowledge under difficulties was ready to be written. Kemp 
now acquired friends ; his story was an interesting one, and 
he became quite the pet of the good people of Edina ; an 
honourable career was opened to his view, but alas ! for 
human hopes ! poor Kemp was found lately, just as his work 
was done, drowned near a little bridge which he was crossing 
late at night, as is feared but not satisfactorily proved, either 
destroyed by jealous rivals, or, from the effects of a carouse 
with a few boon-companions. Had his life been lengthened, 
his genius and skill, it is thought, would have elevated him 
to the highest honours of his art. 

Holyrood Palace, at the foot of Salisbury Crag, is still kept 
in order after a fashion ; but it is a desolate, cold, uninhabited 
relic. The rooms are large, ceilings low, furniture not as 
good as your own grandfather's, and the air of the whole con- 
veys the idea of any thing but a palace. The brisk Scotch 
lassies who show it, are dressed in the tip of the mode, and 
go through the regular routine with uninterested gravity ; 
'' this is the grave of Rizzio" — " these are the bones of the 
Kings of Scotland" — and the uncovered bones, to the reproach 

VOL. II. 17 



194 SCOTLAND. 

of Scotland, you look upon through a grate ; while the girl 
yawns and looks another way. " This is Queen Mary's 
work-box," she says, as she peeps at her face in a metallic 
rairiror to see how her curls are getting on. 

The private apartments of Mary would be deemed unin- 
habitable by any modern lady of fashion; there is an air of 
desolation about, that is positively oppressive ; and the relics 
still preserved — the embroidered double chair, or throne, on 
which Mary and Darnley sat after their marriage, — the state- 
bed in tatters — her dressing-case — and the basket, in which 
was laid the baby-linen for her only child — the closet, and 
the stains of blood — the portraits, all alike, of the one hundred 
and six Kings of Scotland in the gloomy state dinner-room — 
all this, it is quite as well to read of in the writings of all 
travellers who have been there', as it is to see. The glory of 
the place, and even its nicety, have departed; a visit will 
only bring to the mind melancholy recollections. 

The same may be said of the old castle, one of those which 
by the articles of union are to be kept up and garrisoned- 
The present occupants are a lazy-looking regiment in High- 
land costume, with bare knees, showing generally an un- 
seemly display of red hairs on them, who lounge about the 
town when off duty, and follow the drum and fife about the 
quadrangle, for a subsistence. The neighbourhood and ac- 
cess to the castle is beleagured by a collection of vile females, 
whose public promenade it would be creditable to the authori- 
ties of England, a nation that boasts its superiority to France 
in manners and morals, — it would be creditable to the female 
head of the nation, to have banished ; their impertinence and 
leering drunkenness would disgrace the kingdom of Queen 
Pomare ; missionaries would write books upon the wickedness 
of the Sandwich Islanders, if scenes such as are daily wit- 
nessed near this royal castle, were enacted in barbarous 
countries. Strange is it how the vision of some philanthro- 
pists sees through the dead walls of its own country, to spy 



SCOTLAND. 195 

the distant evils of nations less benighted than their own. 
Louis Philippe, the King of the French, so often belied in 
England, has set a good example even to London. 

The Scottish regalia is shown by lamp-light in a confined 
smoky little room, where it was so long hidden and lost, and 
whence the researches of Sir Walter Scott dragged it to 
light; the room where Queen Mary gave birth to James VI., 
in whom the crowns of England and Scotland were united — 
Mons Meg, the enormous cannon cast at Mons in Flanders, 
restored to Scotland by George the Fourth at the request of 
the author of Waverley, and the fine view from the top of the 
castle, must interest the visiter not yet fatigued with seeing 
sights. Instead of tiring' you with descriptions of these 
things, let me copy a thrilling story of the taking of the castle 
under most singular circumstances of peril, as it is told by 
my friend Robert Chambers : 

In 1296, during the contest for the crown between Bruce 
and Baliol, it was besieged and taken by the English. It 
still remained in their possession in 1313, at which time it 
was strongly garrisoned and commanded by Piers Leland, a 
Lombard. This governor, having fallen under the suspicion 
of the garrison, was thrown into a dungeon, and another 
appointed to the command, in whose fidelity they had com- 
plete confidence. It has frequently been remarked, that in 
capturing fortresses, those attacks are generally most suc- 
cessful which are made upon points where the attempt ap- 
pears the most desperate. Such was the case in the example 
now to be narrated. Randolph, Earl of Moray, was one day 
surveying the gigantic rock, and probably contemplating the 
possibility of a successful assault upon the fortress, when he 
was accosted by one of his men-at-arms with the question, 
"Do you think it impracticable, my lord]" Randolph turned 
his eyes upon the querist, a man a little past the prime of 
life, but of a firm, well-knit figure, and bearing in his bright 
eye, and bold and open brow, indications of an intrepidity 



196 SCOTLAND. 

which had already made him remarkable in the Scottish 
army. 

"Do you mean the rock, Francis ?" said the earl ; "per- 
haps not, if we could borrow the wings of our gallant hawks." 

" There are wings," replied Francis, with a thoughtful 
smile, " as strong, as buoyant, and as daring. My father was 
keeper of yonder fortress." 

" What of that 1 you speak in riddles." 

" I was then young, reckless, high-hearted ; I was mewed 
up in that convent-like castle ; ray mistress was in the plain 
below — " 

" Well, what then ?" 

" 'Sdeath, my lord, can you not imagine that I speak of the 
wings of love 1 Every night I descended that steep at the 
witching hour, and every morning before the dawn I crept 
back to my barracks. I constructed a light twelve-foot lad- 
der, by means of which I was able to pass the places that are 
perpendicular; and so well, at length, did I become acquainted 
with the route, that in the darkest and stormiest night, I found 
my way as easily as when the moonlight enabled me to see 
my love in the distance, waiting for me at her cottage-door." 

" You are a daring, desperate, noble fellow, Francis ! How- 
ever, your motive is now gone ; your mistress — " 

" She is dead : say no more ; but another has taken her 
place." 

" Ay, ay, it's the soldier's way. Women will die, or even 
grow old ; and v/hat are we to do 1 Come, who is your mis- 
tress now ]" 

" My Country ! What I have done for love, I can do 
again for honour ; and what I can accomplish, you, noble 
Randolph, and many of our comrades, can do far better. 
Give me thirty picked men, and a twelve-foot ladder, and the 
fortress is our own !" 

The Earl of Moray, whatever his real thoughts of the 
enterprise might have been, was not the man to refuse such 
a challenge. A ladder was provided, and thirty men chosen 



SCOTLAND. 197 

from the troops; and in the middle of a dark night, the party, 
commanded by Randolph himself, and guided by William 
Francis, set forth on their desperate enterprise. 

By catching at crag after crag, and digging their fingers 
into the interstices of the rocks, they succeeded in mounting 
a considerable way ; but the weather was now so thick, they 
could receive but little assistance from their eyes ; and thus 
they continued to climb, almost in utter darkness, like men 
struggling up a precipice in the nightmare. They at length 
reached a shelving table of the clifF, above which the ascent, 
for ten or twelve feet, was perpendicular ; and having fixed 
their ladder, the whole party lay down to recover breath. 

From this place they could hear the tread and voices of 
the " check-watches" or patrol above ; and surrounded by 
the perils of such a moment, it is not wonderful that some 
illusions may have mingled with their thoughts. They even 
imagined that they w^ere seen from the battlements; although, 
being themselves unable to see the warders, this was highly 
improbable. It became evident, notwithstanding, from the 
words they caught here and there, in the pauses of the night- 
wind, that the conversation of the English soldiers above 
related to a surprise of the castle ; and, at length, these 
appalling words broke like thunder on their ears : " Stand ! 
I see you well !" A fragment of the rock was hurled down 
at the same instant ; and, as rushing from crag to crag, it 
bounded over their heads, Randolph and his brave followers, 
in this wild, helpless, and extraordinary situation, felt the 
damp of mortal terror gathering upon their brow, as they 
clang with a death-grip to the precipice. 

The startled echoes of the rock were at length silent, and 
so were the voices above. The adventurers paused, listen- 
ing breathless ; no sound was heard but the sighing of the 
wind, and the measured tread of the sentinel, who had re- 
sumed his walk. The men thought they were in a dream, 
and no wonder ; for the incident just mentioned, which is 
related by Barbour, was one of the most singular coinci- 

17* 



198 SCOTLAiVD. 

dences that ever occurred. The shout of the sentinel, and 
the missile he had thrown, were merely a boyish freak ; and 
while listening to the echoes of the rock, he had not the 
smallest idea that the sounds which gave pleasure to him, 
carried terror, and almost despair, into the hearts of the 
enemy. 

The adventurers, half uncertain whether they were not 
the victims of some illusion, determined that it was as safe 
to go on as to turn back ; and pursuing their laborious and 
dangerous path, they at length reached the bottom of the 
wall. This last barrier they scaled by means of their lad- 
der; and leaping down among the astonished check-watchers, 
they cjied their war-cry, and, in the midst of answering 
shouts of "treason! treason I"' notwithstanding the despe- 
rate resistance of the garrison, captured the Castle of Edin- 
burgh. 

One of the lions of Edinburgh is the printing office of 
Robert Chambers and brother, from which issues so much 
that is useful and informing to the common as well as. the 
educated mind. The establishment has often been described; 
eight large power-presses are employed ; and the whole busi- 
ness of stereotyping, printing, folding, stitching, and binding, 
is carried on with a regularity and industry that is considered 
quite remarkable ; but I confess, apart from the literary and 
estimable character of the proprietors, there are many larger 
and equally well-conducted establishments in America. I 
found Robert Chambers at his desk, but polite enough to say 
he could well afford to leave it to chat with an old corre- 
spondent ; he has an intellectual countenance, fine forehead, 
surmounted by a great crop of vigorous hair, and a sturdy 
frame, that seem as if, united, they could accomplish any 
thing he attempted. 

His Edinburgh Journal, with a circulation now exceeding 
one hundred thousand copies, has been altered from a folio to 
an octavo ; it continues to be very popular and useful. Mr. 
Chambers also is an extensive publisher of other matters, 



SCOTLAND. 199 

small books generally, but adapted to the wants of the useful 
classes. With all this extensive business, carried on for a 
great number of years, he informed me that their house had 
not met with losses altogether amounting- to two thousand 
dollars. They require monthly accounts from all their agents, 
and cash payments, much on the plan pursued in the Ameri- 
can post-office. Contrast this amount with the business losses 
of some of your publishers during the last ten years. 

It was the Viscount D'Arlincourt, who first interested us I 
believe in the descendants of the Stuarts ; — two brothers he 
met in Edinburgh and visited at their country residence, 
whom he declares to be grandchildren of Prince Charlie ! I 
made inquiry respecting these gentlemen, whose likeness to 
the Pretender is so great, together with other corroborative 
circumstances, as to warrant the impression that they are 
descendants, but not necessarily therefore having any claim 
to the throne, for their ancestor was illegitimate. The Ca- 
tholics take some pride in pointing them out as Stuarts — 
hence the enthusiasm of the Viscount. The elder brother, 
John Sobieski Stuart, is rather a favourite in society ; he 
comes to balls and parties in full Highland costume ; is tall, 
rather handsome, and an accomplished musician. He has 
married a lady with some real estate somewhere in the hills, 
but never has introduced her to society in the city ; the bro- 
thers are looked upon as idlers without prospects, and have 
the reputation of tavern loungers. Their recognised exist- 
ence as descendants of the unsuccessful Prince, is, however, 
interesting; it is not surprising that among the people who 
hand down every circumstance of the '45 struggle for a king- 
dom, these individuals should be somewhat of lions; indeed it 
is wonderful that they are not more so. Sobieski is said to 
bear a striking resemblance to Vandyke's portrait of Charles 
the First, but is handsomer ; his brother Charles Edward 
Stuart is the living image of the Pretender. It is said they 
have in their possession the orders of Charles Edward, his 
clothes, watch, jewels, hair, flags, arms, and portrait. Napo- 



200 SCOTLAND. 

leon attached them to his interest by employing- them in his 
army, and the young Scots fought beneath his colours ; So- 
bieski even received a cross from the Emperor.* 

If the climate of England had been unpropitious, what am 
I to think of that of Scotland 1 It is nov;^ the eleventh of 
August, when Philadelphians are studying every means of 
keeping cool, or bathing in the sea; here the rain pours 
down in one unceasing torrent, and a large fire is in every 
drawing and dining-room where I visit; at the hotel I am 
obliged to keep another, or writing would be out of the ques- 
tion. Thick overcoats and plaid shawls in addition, are very 
acceptable. The prospects for the crops are gloomy in the 
extreme; at many points of our route since 1 left Sheffield, 
the little rivers have overflown their boundaries, carrying 
away or submerging hundreds of acres of mown grass ; the 
farmers were in despair. 

Every body you converse with says it is uncommonly wet 
and cold, but Scotland is famous for its showers even com- 
pared with England. The guide-book says, " The average 
number of days in which either rain or snow falls in parts 
situated on the west coast is about 200, on the east coast about 
145." The answer of the Scotch boy conveys some further 
information — "I say, laddie, does it always rain here?" — 
Answer — " Na, it sometim.es snaws !" 

This incessant shower prevents me from fully enjoying 
Edinburgh and its beauties. During an interval of sunshine 
of half an hour, I drove out to the Royal Botanical Garden in 
the suburbs, one of the finest in Europe, but was soon glad 
to find shelter in the conservatories from a pelting rain. 
These green-houses are extensive and full of rare and ex- 
quisitely beautiful plants, all cultivated with skill and taste ; 
another garden near by, belonging to a private company of 
gentlemen, is devoted to propagating the best fruits for the 

* The reader who wishes for more information on this subject may 
turn to "The Three Kingdoms, England, Ireland, and Scotland, by 
the Viscount D'Arlincourt. " 



SCOTLAND. 201 

planting of the members, and for sale ; it is in fine order, 
most useful to the neighbourhood, and should be imitated in 
America. 

As ever, yours, &c. 



LETTER LXXIX. 

Appearance of Edinburgh — Fish-women — Their pride — John Knox's 
house — Scottish secession — Its estranging influence — Dirty churches 
— Leave Edinburgh — Pertli — Birnam Wood — Dunkeld — Duke of 
Athoi's grounds — The larches — The present Duke a hopeless idiot — 
Lord Glenlyon — Posting — Killiecrankie — Blair Athol — Highlands — 
Castle of Blair — Return to Dunkeld, 

The whole appearance of Edinburgh has a look foreign 
from other places ; its architecture and people, two important 
ingredients, it must be confessed, in a city, do not resemble 
those of any other ; the building stone used is superior, and 
the style is peculiar ; so are the clothes worn, and the shops ; 
there are no great merchants here, but a great body of shop- 
keepers ; advocates, and retired persons of fortune, or pen- 
sioners of government, are numerous. The new town is still 
and quiet, but the old, swarms with women, and at least every 
second woman and girl has a baby in her arms ; the fish-wo- 
men constitute a distinct body; their ancestors came from 
Holland three hundred years since; they have preserved 
their family blood almost untainted to this day, intermarrying 
with the Scots very rarely, considering it a species of de- 
gradation to unite their fortunes with shopkeepers; in short 
they have as much pride as a Highlander. With their 
brawny arms, huge dimensions, and peculiar antique Flan- 
ders dress, they form quite a feature in the town landscape ; 
especially so in the neighbourhood of the Tolbooth and John 



202 SCOTLAND. 

Knox's old house. The latter, at the head of the Natherbow, 
is a little, low, two-storied building, occupied on the ground- 
floor as a toy shop, and above by a barber. The inscription is 
now partly hidden by the signboards, but runs thus : — 

LUFE. GOD. ABOVE. AL. AND. YOUR. NICHBOUR. AS. YOUR. SELF. 

The rude little e^gy of the reformer, stuck upon the corner 
of the house in the attitude of addressing the passers-by, is 
taken especial care of by the barber tenant, who paints it an- 
nually, and no doubt finds it a useful sign, as it is sought after 
by all strangers. The height of the houses hereabouts, and 
the dirty closes full of squalid abodes, realize all the de- 
scriptions from Smollett to Scott. 

Much excitement prevails respecting the Scottish secession 
from the established church. The impression here is, that 
nearly one-half have gone off from the establishment ; the 
seceders are extremely enthusiastic, and thus far united. 
Like other religious differences, this has divided not only 
congregations, but families, to a lamentable extent ; father 
and son, brother and brother, go to different churches, and be- 
come in some instances sadly estranged. From what I ob- 
served in Edinburgh, I should endorse the opinion of former 
visiters, that the interiors of the churches of the establish- 
ment are less clean than would be seemly. 

As it may be acceptable to some of my readers, I have 
taken some pains to collect information on the history of these 
difficulties, which I will condense as much as possible. 

In 1567, seven years after the Reformation in Scotland, 
under the direction of the celebrated John Knox, had dispos- 
sessed the Catholic clergy of their livings, the Presbyterian 
form of worship was established in that kingdom ; by the act 
of Parliament of the same year, confirmed by another of 
1592, the presentation to livings was declared to belong to 
the "just and ancient patronis," subject to a veto only by the 
General Assembly of the Kirk. 



SCOTLAND. 203 

After the union of England and Scotland under James I., 
in the early part of the following century, Scotland was 
obliged to succumb to Episcopacy, as by law established ; bat 
in Cromwell's time, the Presbyterians coming into power, re- 
instated their favourite kirk. In 1649, the appointment of 
ministers — patronage being temporarily laid aside — was vested 
in the Kirk Session, or by lay elders, of each parish. In the 
reign of Queen Anne, (1711,) however, this act was voided by 
another, which is the present law of the land, and which re- 
placed the patrons in all their former rights, according to the 
acts of Parliament of 1567 and 1592. By the law and usage, 
therefore, the people have no voice whatever in the choice of 
^heir ministers, the presentation to the living being a prero- 
gative of the lord of the manor, or whoever else may be the 
patron, and the ordination and institution the office of the 
presbytery of the district in which the parish is situated. A 
presbytery consists of the ministers of several contiguous 
parishes, who are members ex officio^ with the addition of an 
elder^ a layman, elected at stated periods from each kirk-ses- 
sion, or vestry, within the district. 

There has always, however, since the act of 1711, been a 
party in the kirk, which has contended for popular election in 
the settlement of ministers, or at least that the heads of 
families should have a veto, for reasons properly shown, upon 
the presentee of the heritor (or land proprietor). This party, 
reinforced by the introduction in 1833 and 1834, of about a 
hundred extra-parochial ministers into the General Assembly 
of the Kirk, obtained the passage of an " overture" to the fol- 
lowing effect : that if a majority of the male heads of families 
in any vacant parish should disapprove of a presented minister, 
it should be the duty of the presbytery to reject him. This 
" overture" being sent down, according to custom, to the 
different presbyteries for approval, it was found in the next 
Assembly of 1835, that a majority confirmed it ; and a motion, 
carried by a majority of forty or fifty, declared that the mea- 
sure should be held and acted upon as a standing law of the 



204 SCOTLAND. 

Kirk. Thus was passed the veto act, which afterwards 
brought the Kirk into such unhappy collision with the state. 

The question of the legality or illegality of the veto act 
was soon tested. The Earl of Kinnoul, in whose gift was 
the parish of Auchterarder, presented a Mr. Robert Young, 
when 287 heads of families out of 330, objected, and the pres- 
bytery accordingly rejected him. Mr. Young instituted a 
civil suit against the presbytery, and the court pronounced 
they had acted illegally. The defendants appealed to the 
House of Lords, who unanimously affirmed the decision. The 
Auchterarder case became therefore a precedent, according to 
which all subsequent suits have been decided. 

In the mean time all Scotland was in excitement, and dis- 
graceful scenes were enacted in the very kirk-yards between 
the parties of the intrusionists and the non-intrusionists, as 
they were called. The veto party were not inclined to yield 
the point, and at the General assembly of the Kirk in 1843, 
matters came to a crisis. At the opening of that convention 
on the 18th of May, Dr. Welsh read a protest on behalf of 
himself and the rest of the non-intrusionist party, against the 
decision of the civil courts. When he had finished, the se- 
ceders rose, left the Assembly in procession, and proceeded to 
organize a General Assembly of their own. About one-third 
of the clergy of the Kirk thus found themselves deprived of 
that state support on which they had previously depended 
for themselves and their families. The number of the se- 
ceders was as follows : 

214 Parish ministers. 

144 Quoad Sacra ministers, or ministers of chapels of 

ease, &c. 
37 Professors, &c. 

Of those who were left behind, and who proceeded to carry 
on the business of the General Assembly, there were — 

733 Parish ministers. 

102 ministers of chapels of ease, &c. 



SCOTLAND. 205 

After enjoying the hospitality which is sure to be extended 
to strangers by the Scots, I pursued my way in the rain to- 
wards the Highlands, through moors, 

" A wide domain — 
And rich the soil had purple heath been grain," — 

— to Perth, omitting the sentimental excursion to the graves 
of Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, and only obtaining a glimpse 
of Scone Palace, the seat of the Earl of Mansfield, who does 
not allow the interior to be shown. The traveller is next 
interested by hearing that he is crossing the former site of 
Birnam Wood, and the hill called by the people Dun-sin-an, 
so famous in the history of Macbeth. No old trees greet 
you, however, nor did we see any symptoms of " woods" till 
near Dunkeld, where the larch plantations of the late Duke 
of Athol begin to be conspicuous on the sides of the moun- 
tains. The grounds of the Duke are really magnificent, 
especially a long walk on the banks of the Tay ; the extent 
of the walks is fifty miles, and of the rides thirty. The two 
original larches introduced into Great Britain in 1737, in 
flower-pots, now rear their giant trunks ; these trees are one 
hundred feet high, and at three feet from the ground measure 
fifteen feet in circumference. They are the fruitful parents 
of twenty-seven millions of trees, planted by the late Duke of 
Athol over an extent of 11,000 acres, changing entirely the 
aspect of many of his bleak hills ; now that the trees are in 
great request for making railroads, the mania having ex- 
tended to Perth, the profits on this planting will be immense. 
The Duke had the singular happiness to live to see a ship 
launched, which was built of trees of his own planting. 

The late Duke of Athol projected, and partly erected, a 
magnificent mansion at his seat at Dunkeld, estimated to 
cost a million of dollars ; when he died, the work was dis- 
continued, and it looks already something like a ruin. The 
estates are in the hands of trustees, in consequence of the 

VOL. II. 18 



206 SCOTLAND. 

imbecility of the heir and only child. At fourteen years of 
age he lost his mind from some cause, and he has been a 
hopeless idiot for fifty years. He is well cared for near Lon- 
don, wheibe he has an establishment devoted to him, and a 
physician always in attendance, but it is understood that his 
chief pleasure consists in catching- flies and burying them in 
pill-boxes in the garden ! What a melancholy privation of 
intellect, where there was so much to enjoy, and so many 
opportunities to do good. Lord Glenlyon, the nephew and 
next heir, resides on the estate in a neat cottage, near the 
curious old ruined cathedral, the mansion of the late Duke 
having been destroyed by fire. Lord G. has gone to Blair 
Athol in the Highlands, to shoot, so that a good opportunity 
was afforded of inspecting the various beautiful scenery, and 
the truly superb shrubberies of a hundred years' growth 
where probably there are more specimens of some foreign 
hardy evergreens than can be found in all the United States 
together ; the old and rare trees, too, are extremely interest- 
ing. The provoking fee system is here carried to perfection; 
the tree valet dare not enter the cathedral, nor the clerical 
guide point to the larches, though they are so near to each 
other as to cast their shadows respectively on each. The 
silly Duke catches flies, said a visiter to-day, and his servants 
are equally expert in taking gudgeons ! 

A bridal party about to post to Blair Athol to set their feet 
fairly in the Highlands, and view the celebrated pass of Kil- 
liecrankie, invited me to join in the excursion. The ride 
was an agreeable one, the scenery fine, and exhibiting traces 
all the way of successful larch and other planting. 

The pass of Killiecrankie almost resembles American 
scenery in wildness. The hills on both sides approach very 
near, and descend in rugged precipices to the deep channel 
of the little river Garry. This pass is the well-known scene 
of the battle, fought in 1689, between the Highland clans, 
under Viscount Dundee, and the troops of King William, 



SCOTLAND. ti07 

commanded by General Mackay ; you will recall the follow- 
ing and other stanzas of Sir Walter's : — 

" Come, fill up my cup, come, fill up my can, 
Come, saddle my horses, and call up my men ; 
Come, open the West Port, and let me gae free. 
And it's room for the bonnets of bonny Dundee," &c. 

At Blair Athol you are fairly in the Highlands ; of this we 
were admonished by the cold weather, which was insupport- 
able without fire, by the cold reception at the inn, which was 
full, and the inhospitable manners of all concerned in the 
premises. We had no remedy but to retrace our steps, 
after a hasty inspection of the old castle of Blair, which is 
not worth a visit; it is one of the show places in consequence 
of the great quantity of deer in the park, and of the residence 
of the Queen there in 1844 ; she remained three weeks, and 
the Prince had a fine opportunity for slaughter among the 
game. With some ladies I visited the little falls, as we 
should call them, of Bruar, celebrated by Burns and other 
poets, who never saw Niagara. You are now in the vicinity 
of the terrific " Morayshire floods," respecting which a large 
octavo book was written, full of dreadful disasters. 

Opposite my hotel in Dunkeld, T have the name of Adam 
Ferguson, a saddler ; Robertsons, and names with which 
Scotland's history is so full, meet your eye every where ; the 
members of each clan have all the same name, and those are 
familiar as old acquaintances. A book upon the clans of 
Scotland, by John Sobieski Stuart, remarkable for its costly 
engravings, was lent me by a gentleman of Dunkeld, to while 
away a dull rainy evening in a poor hotel. It is one of the 
most beautiful volumes on costume ever published. 

Yours, &c. 



208 SCOTLAND. 



LETTER LXXX. 

Dunkeld to Kenmore — Aberfeldy — Taymouth Castle — Visit of the 
Queen — A ranger iiilled— Extent of Breadalbane's possessions — A 
managing lady and daughters— A cockney — Callandar — More Ame- 
ricans — Commercial travellers — Fees— Loch Katrine — Row on the 
lake— Steamboat sunk— Gaelic — Loch Lomond— Glenfalloch — Ben 
Lomond— Scotch sign — Dumbarton Castle — Glasgow — Refuge for 
houseless poor — The Kirk — Sir Walter's monument. 

The road from Dunkeld to Kenmore passes Aberfeldy, 
where English summer tourists stop to visit the Falls of 
Moness. The " Birks of Aberfeldy" have been celebrated 
by Burns and others, but it was almost certain if I stopped 
to examine them, that the next stage would be full ; at 
Kenmore, a beautiful village at the head of Loch Tay, near 
Taymouth Castle, a dozen travellers were thus disappointed, 
some of whom had tried in vain to procure seats for several 
days ; this admonished me to proceed with only a hasty glance 
at the magnificent seat of the Marquis of Breadalbane. Tay- 
mouth Castle is the most celebrated show-place in Scotland, 
and yet visiters are only allowed to inspect the entrance-hall 
and stairway. The grounds are truly magnificent ; it was 
here that the Queen and Prince Albert were so magnificently 
entertained ; sixty thousand party-coloured lamps were brought 
from London to illuminate the park, where the royal party 
were treated to Highland dances by the natives in their 
national costumes. 

This morning, an old ranger of the park was found dead 



SCOTLAND. 209 

in the grounds, having been attacked and killed by one of the 
buffaloes belonging to the Marquis, who is very fond of in- 
troducing wild animals ; he possesses fine specimens of the 
wild Caledonian ox, and other peculiar breeds. The present 
Marquis is childless ; his possessions already extend nearly 
over a space of a hundred miles — and this vast extent will 
be greatly increased, the next heir being the hereditary 
possessor of adjoining lands, also of immense size. 

We had with us to-day, a managing lady and her two 
daughters, whose mode of travelling and habits of thought 
were new to me. They were picked up at Dunkeld, at a 
tailor's door, and soon by their garrulousness disclosed their 
economical plan of travelling. They had been abroad for 
six weeks, and had never once set foot in a hotel. Their 
plan was to write in advance to a place they intended to visit, 
and take humble lodgings at a very cheap rate, get a fair 
opportunity to see all that was to be seen, and proceed as be- 
fore. The elderly mamma said, that in every village or 
neighbourhood there were such accommodations to be had by 
inquiry, and that by this process she got along with her 
daughters for far less than the cost usually incurred by a 
single traveller. On the present occasion, she had taken the 
outside of the coach to see every thing, and she hallooed 
down to her daughters in the interior whenever any thing of 
note was in view. At the sound of " Rob Roy's grave, girls," 
the young ladies put their heads out and gazed in raptures ; 
and this was repeated every half hour. The sun becoming 
warm, " Maria" was coaxed by her mamma to mount the 
top, but she shuddered at the formidable ascent of the ladder, 
and her mamma sighed to me — " Maria is so particular." 

A more curious study than these ladies, who, however, 
amused me exceedingly, was a London cockney, who had 
never been so far from home before ; he said he had read 
somewhere, that a traveller was never so independent as 
when he carried no luggage ; he had therefore set out with 

18* 



210 SCOTLAND. 

only a razor in his pocket, and wondered much to find the 
world so large ! He delighted to tell of an excursion he had 
once made to Brighton, declaring that with steam it was 
" nothingk to travel" — that at Brighton the " orses were not 
alf so good as the ouses," and sundry scraps of cockneyisms 
that were amazingly novel. He complained, that at Ken- 
more, the tavern people, finding him without baggage, had 
placed him for the night in the garret, and begged me to 
spare him something from my superabundance to carry to the 
hotel at Callandar, lest he would be again treated as a ser- 
vant. The poor fellow was a rich specimen of a large class 
of ignorant London tradesmen. 

At Callandar we were poorly accommodated ; an American 
clergyman from Boston, who had-preached the day before at 
the Free Church, built by the Marquis of Breadalbane at 
Kenmore, and who was travelling with his son, was grossly 
insulted by the head-waiter, for not carving a piece of roast- 
beef in a square fashion ; so great was the insult we could 
not but notice it ; calling in the landlord, we demanded that 
the offender should not appear again in our presence ; a slight 
apology and compliance with our demand satisfied us. This 
Presbyterian preacher had been travelling all over Europe, 
including Italy ; as an American, he took part with the Free 
Church, had been great friends with the Marquis, and after 
his sermon had dined and passed the day at Taymouth Cas- 
tle ; on hearing this the landlord was most obsequious and 
accommodating. I fell in here with two " commercial travel- 
lers," who were going to see the lakes, and we agreed to pro- 
ceed in the morning together. 

From Callandar, the route to Loch Katrine passes over 
" Coilantogle Ford," the scene of the combat between Fitz- 
Jamesand Roderick Dhu, and the tourist soon enters the pass 
called the Trosachs {Troschen, bristled country). On the 
left is Benvenue, 2800 feet in height, and on the right 
Benan : 



SCOTLAND. 211 

" High on the south, huge Benvenue 
Down in the lake its masses threw — 
Crags, knolls, and mounds confusedly hurl'd 
The fragments of an earlier world ; 
A wildering forest, feather'd o'er 
His ruin'd sides and summits hoar." 

We had the Lady of the Lake to verify every scene of the 
delightful poem, every descriptive line of which is so highly 
characteristic ; even — 

"Foxglove and nightshade side by side, 
Emblems of punishment and pride," 

grew in full bloom before us, while the truth of the following 
lines was impressively felt : 

" The wanderer's eye could barely view 
The summer heaven's delicious hue ; 
So wondrous wild, the whole might seem 
The scenery of a fairy dream." 

Entering a boat at the end of Loch Katrine, we were soon 
joined by four stout rowers, who started off in fine style, sing- 
ing with tolerable melody the well-known boat-song, and 
" Hail to the Chief" 

The lake is ten miles in length, with scenery not to be 
compared with that of Lake George, but deeply interesting 
from the hallowing influence of poetry and story. The island, 
described as the residence of Douglas, had, till lately, a sum- 
mer-house upon it, erected by Lady Willoughby D'Eresby, 
but it was burnt down by the carelessness of some smokers. 
The attempt to establish a steamboat on Loch Katrine, in 
1843, frustrated by the boatmen's sinking it, to prevent inter- 
ference with their trade, is about to be renewed ; but the 
rowers seemed to think the effort would be attended with 
like success. We have heard Gaelic spoken by many of the 
inhabitants since reaching the Highlands ; some of the boat- 



212 SCOTLAND. 

men spoke it among themselves to-day. They pointed out the 
birthplace of Helen Macgregor, Rob Roy's wife. 

At the termination of Loch Katrine, about five miles of 
walking, over the most desolate moor I ever saw, brings you 
to the steep banks of Loch Lomond. After an hour's delay, a 
steamboat took us on board and steamed to the upper end of 
the valley of Glenfalloch, passing numerous islands, and 
scenery, as Scott has said in Rob Roy, " surprising, beautiful, 
and sublime," but not to be named in the same breath with 
many lake scenes in America. Ben Lomond is but 3210 feet 
above the level of the lake ; after gazing upon Mont Blanc, 
15,000 feet in height, the sublimity was entirely wanting. 

The boat waits here for an hour to meet a splendid line of 
stages from the Highlands. While viewing the scene of the 
city passengers from Glasgow, who make this a day's excur- 
sion, tumbling about like children among the new-mown hay, 
one of my commercial friends drew my attention to a sign- 
board, which, had it been observed by any English traveller 
in America, would have created a paragraph and a sneer ; it 
ran thus — 

" No allowance whatever for standing on the Paddle 
Boxes." 

The last island is a long narrow one, named Inch Murrin, 
finely clothed in wood, employed by the Duke of Montrose as 
a deer park. You now pass the ruins of Lennox Castle, amid 
unclothed hills, but still amid scenery of great beauty, and 
land at Balloch, where you take coach for Dumbarton, at the 
junction of the Severn and Clyde. The old town is flanked 
by the rock of Dumbarton, which rises 560 feet, measuring a 
mile in circumference, and terminating in two sharp points, 
with batteries on the tops. Wallace was confined here by 
the infamous Sir John Monteith, who betrayed him. "Wal- 
lace's Tower" is still shown, with his two-handed sword. Up 
the Clyde, to Glasgow, passengers are conveyed by a power- 
ful steamboat, superior in strength to any I have seen in 
Europe. 



SCOTLAND. 213 

Glasgow is a wonderful city : it is the third in wealth, 
population, and manufacturing and commercial importance 
in the United Kingdom, having reached this state with strides 
almost as rapid, of late, as the progress of any American city ; 
its population, in 1651, was 14,000 ; in 1831, 200,000 ; the 
census of 1841 gives 258,000, and now there is supposed to 
be very nearly 300,000. Glasgow consumes an immense 
quantity of American cotton. There are said to be in motion 
1,000,000 spindles, and sixteen to seventeen thousand steam- 
looms are set in motion by Glasgow capital, producing 336,000 
yards daily, valued at twelve or fourteen millions of dollars; 
and this is within forty years of the introduction of the manu- 
facture. Silk, and chemical works, steam engine manufac- 
tories, and other branches of industry, besides an extensive 
commerce carried on from the more accessible port of 
Greenock, nearer the sea, have brought a large accession of 
capital to this city. Splendid private residences, almost 
equal in architecture to those of Edinburgh, terraces, crescents 
in the new town, attest the wealth of the inhabitants, whose 
charitable institutions are on a scale of liberality extremely 
creditable to the people. Both here and at Edinburgh, I 
visited the " Nightly Refuge for the houseless poor," esta- 
blishments supported by private charity, where every person, 
not otherwise provided for, is sure of finding a good, clean 
bed, if they do not come too frequently, and show themselves 
incorrigible vagrants, in which case they are taken to less 
desirable quarters. 

I received the most hospitable attentions here from several 
gentlemen deeply interested in public institutions. 

Glasgow is just now especially unhappy regarding the dif- 
ferences in the Kirk ; the new school are building extensive 
churches, and subscribing liberally to a college. Two 
churches have been just run up in close proximity to each 
other, for want of better sites. One of the difficulties expe- 
rienced in Scotland is to get land to build them on ; the 
owners being of the established church, generally, will not 



214 SCOTLAND. 

allow the seceders to use their property for the purpose. In 
some places this has obliged the people to meet on the sea- 
shore, without shelter, or in tents. How bitter are the dis- 
putes of people calling themselves followers of a meek and 
lowly Jesus. The Marquis of Breadalbane has given fifty 
thousand dollars to the new cause, for churches and a college, 
in addition to building kirks in several parts of his large do- 
mains. 

Tardy justice is done in Europe to genius of the first grade, 
in whatever department it may have exhibited itself, the 
misfortune being that the individual who earned the dis- 
tinction is beyond the reach of the benefit. I am writing 
from a room in Glasgow, from which I see, towering in the 
air, the monument — and a fine one it is — to Sir Walter Scott 
— the second in Scotland to the memory of this great genius, 
who died, worn out in the cause of his creditors. I will, how- 
ever, not pursue his case, for, after all — barring the shame I 
always feel at the recollection that he derived no compensation 
whatever for his works from his American publishers — the 
world, the whole literary world, has done nobly by Sir Walter's 
memory. My recollections of other striking instances of the 
neglect of the living, have been quickened by just now read- 
ing in a Glasgow paper, that, a few days since. Colonel and 
Major Burns, the sons of the poet, were complimented at 
Inverness, at a public dinner, by being presented with the 
freedom of the town, in presence of eighty of the principal 
inhabitants. 



SCOTLAND. 215 



LETTER LXXXI. 

Glasgow — Steamer Thetis — Intercourse with Ireland — Beggars — Ceme- 
tery — Passage to Liverpool — Cattle — Liverpool — Embark in the 
Great Western — The parting scene — Punctuality. 

I VISITED yesterday the model of Glasgow steamers, the 
Thetis, to ply from Greenock to Belfast; she has just re- 
turned from her experimental trip, having performed seventeen 
miles an hour against a head wind. When the Dublin and 
Belfast junction railway is completed, travellers may go from 
Dublin to Edinburgh, a distance of 280 miles, in thirteen and 
a half hours. The voyage from Greenock to Belfast was 
made in a little over six hours. The constant intercourse 
between the two coasts introduces the people to each other in 
a way that must materially tend to bind them together. A 
great portion of the provisions and marketing of all kinds, is 
brought to Glasgow from the more genial clime and soil of 
Ireland ; vegetables and fruit especially. 

I find more beggars in Scotland than I expected ; their ap- 
peals are of the most touching kind. One boy of fourteen 
followed me many squares this evening for a penny, and of- 
fered to wait an hour at the door of the hotel, if I had not a • 
copper " just handy." His tones sunk to my heart and opened 
my purse. In Rob Roy's country, and between lakes Katrine 
and Lomond, we encountered many shivering poor, who had 
put themselves in the route of the pleasure parties. Gipsies 
were among the number. In Glasgow the beggars are not 



216 SCOTLAND. 

SO numerous as across the Channel, but they are too much so 
to leave a favourable impression, especially as the community 
is so wealthy and prosperous. 

The public charities of Glasgow are highly creditable to its 
inhabitants, A residence of several days amidst hospitalities 
that cannot easily be forgotten, must long leave an agreeable 
impression. The Cemetery here is decidedly the handsomest 
I have seen in Europe. A fine statue of John Knox graces 
its summit. 

A most comfortless passage from Glasgow to Liverpool, in a 
crowded steamboat, the deck covered over with cattle and 
sheep,* so that it was requisite to place a pathway of boards 
over their heads in order to move at all, in the midst of rain 
and a heavy blow, and this after a promise made, when I se- 
cured a berth, that there should be no cattle, has left me under 
the necessity of complaining of the route. The animals were 
taken on board at Greenock, when we were asleep. The 
steward took snuff from a spoon, and smelled so horribly of it 
as to perfume all the food and the whole cabin. This cram- 
ming the nose from a pocket spoon, I had seen before in 
Scotland, but never had I been in such close proximity before 
with Scotch snuffing, and I never will bp again, with my 
own consent. Mrs. Clavers, is it? who says, " If Providence 
had intended my nose for a dust-hole, he would have turned 
it the other side up." 

Instead of arriving at Liverpool, as promised, at five in the 
afternoon, it was eleven at night before we touched the 
wharf Every hotel was full. By twelve I was hospitably 
received at a poor inn, from which I was glad next day to es- 
cape to the house of my friends, where I had engaged to pass a 
few days before sailing for home in the Great Western steam- 

* There was room aft for six hundred pairs of grouse, in little boxes 
of two and four brace, each box ticketed with some name in the west 
end of London. The moors had been well gone over already. These 
few days of shooting serve the cockneys for a whole year of talking, 
and no doubt every brace of birds brought an invitation to a dinner. 



SCOTLAND. 217 

ship. Altog-ether, though I have enjoyed such a variety of 
novel sensations, and seen such an extent of country, the 
greatest pleasure is to come — that of arriving at home — a 
sensation vvrhich thousands have felt the full force of. 

Liverpool, after what I have seen, offers little to interest 
me beyond its people, who are so deeply engaged in business 
as to leave them too little time for social intercourse. I visited 
Chester, so often described, and Eton Hall, where the grounds 
are not at all inferior to those of Chatsworth, and the house 
truly magnificent. But I have wearied of sig^ht-seeing-, and, 
of course, of describing-. Suffice it, then, to say, that my 
son joined me in time to embark in the Great Western, on 
the 23d of x'\ugust. The day — as every day hut three has been 
since I have had the honour of being a guest in Ireland, Eng- 
land, or Scotland — was wet and comfortless. We found our- 
selves among our own countrymen, with a sprinkling of Eng- 
lish, and were able at a glance almost to designate who were 
Americans, by a certain indescribable air and manner. It 
gave a feeling of home to find a great number of coloured 
waiters, and a coloured steward — the latter a saucy fellow ; 
but his black assistants more handy and much less venial 
than the waiters at English and Scotch hotels, in none of 
which have I been as comfortable as at the best in America, 
while the charges are double, at least. 

The parting scene was one of great interest to many on 
board and on shore. A thousand interested persons thronged 
the wharf, some parting for life with sons or daughters, bro- 
thers, or intimate friends. Many a white handkerchief re- 
ceived the falling tear. One group on shore was too much 
overcome to look, and wept silently, with averted eyes. It 
was very striking to find ourselves afloat, and steam up, 
within a few minutes of the advertised hour, though the ship 
had been in port but four days, during which she had coaled, 
and made all her preparations for the largest number of pas- 
sengers she had ever carried. 

Yours, &c. 

VOL. II. 19 



VOYAGE HOME. 



LETTER LXXXI I. 

Steaming across the Atlantic — Over-crowded vessel — Motley passen- 
gers — Consuls — The Captain — Imposition — English and American — 
Tempest — The Great Western a fine ship — A night scene — Want of 
cleanliness. 

And now commenced my first passage across the Atlantic 
by steam. I am less than fifty years of age, but have a perfect 
recollection when we had no steamboats on any of our rivers; 
a vivid one of the discomforts consequent upon travelling 
in sailing packets on the Delaware and North River, as well 
as some experience of the poling and warping system on the 
western waters. To live through all the intermediate stages 
of the use of steam, and to find myself at last in a floating 
palace, (though a very dirty one,) starting punctually too for 
a voyage across the Atlantic, brought with it novel and highly 
interesting associations, not unmixed with hopes that future 
progress may still more forcibly unite the nations of the earth, 
and promote the cause of charity and peace. 

At our outset it was evident to all that we were in an over- 
crowded ship ; the Great Western is calculated for comforta- 
bly conveying about one hundred, and at the most one hun- 
dred and twenty passengers ; we had on board one hundred 
and sixty, a number purposely decreased in the statement on 
arrival to one hundred and fifty-three. Every body that 
wished to go was admitted, and sometimes receipts were 
given twice for the same berths, so that confusion prevailed 5 
the officers, and even the youthful doctor of the ship, were 

19* 



222 VOYAGE HOME. 

turned out of their berths, and the overworked servants slept 
on the bare deck ; the attendance was insufficient ; there 
were not seats for all at the table, and in short, so great was 
the number, and the settees were so crowded with sleepers, 
that we had a most comfortless passage ; as it turned out too, 
it was a most boisterous one. 

The passengers were ^f motley descriptions ; and it was 
not a little curious to note the various professions, professors, 
and callings of those who were making their hurried way 
from Europe, to teach something- or other to us Americans, — 
or to reap a little harvest from our credulity, — or to see how 
democracy works among^ us, — or to sJioot buffaloes. We had 
ministers of the Gospel, and ministers from John Tyler 
whose missions were over, — preachers and players, — painters 
and physicians, — artists and amateurs, — mechanics and musi- 
cians, — merchants and merry-andrews, — singers and sewers, 
— patentees and plaster-venders, — booksellers and basket- 
makers, — picture-dealers and portrait painters, — barbers and 
bakers, — Irish, Italians, Germans, Swiss, French, English, 
and Scotch, — young newly married people and newly married 
old people, — men older than their wives and wives older than 
their husbands, and rather remarkably so, — women who would 
neither walk nor talk, and women who did too much at both, 
— ladies and gentlemen, and people who were neither, — and 
not to be tedious, we had a smart sprinkling of British con- 
suls, one of whom was by far the most consequential and least- 
considered person on board, if we except a very noisy parrot, 
whose quarters were shifted each morning as successive com- 
plaints were made of her disturbance. One of these conse- 
quential persons declined all intercourse with Americans be- 
cause of their country, and was overheard saying, " I wish 
these Americans would not talk to me .'" Was this good or 
bad policy in a man going to reside in a new country 1 It 
was a lesson to us savages to see how consequential some of 
the islanders could be. Then, to crown our catalogue, we had 



VOYAGE HOME. 223 

a real member of Parliament coming oat to take a peep at - 
Brother Jonathan, and see his small country in six weeks! ' 

Nine out of ten of the passengers were more or less sea- 
sick, but seven out often recovered very soon, taking " a spell 
at pumping" only when the weather was very rough. For a 
day or two, we who were perfectly well, had abundance of 
room and attendance at our meals, but when the invalids got 
over their distress and were able to take their places, the 
dinners especially were confused and insufficient; and yet 
how it would have astonished the navigators of only thirty 
years ago, to say nothing of hundreds of years, to see one 
hundred and sixty persons in a palace in the middle of the 
Atlantic, pushing our way through every storm and head 
wind, and dining off of fresh provisions and even grouse, with 
fresh bread, puddings and pies, and ripe plums daily. There 
were quite too many passengers admitted on board, but con- 
sidering the number and their variety of pursuits and cha- 
racters, it was surprising how well they amalgamated. The 
present Captain of the Great Western does not give as entire 
satisfaction as did Captain Hosken ; indeed very serious com- 
plaints were made both respecting him and the steward ; the 
latter is independent of the former, and does as he pleases. 
The whole matter is so well summed up in the annexed extract 
of a letter written on board by an estimable gentleman and 
most agreeable travelling companion, an American, who has 
so ably served his country abroad for more than thirty-two 
years — Mr. Christopher Hughes, late Charge d' Affaires at the 
Hague, — that I must be allowed to insert it. This distin- 
guished diplomatist has won golden opinions from all on 
board, except the officer above alluded to, by his kind-hearted, 
courteous, and cheerful carriage, as well as by the esprit and 
variety of his conversation, and his inexhaustible fund of apt 
and entertaining anecdote. He is writing (to announce his 
arrival at home) to his old chief at Ghent, and friend, Henry 
Clay ; he says : 



224 VOYAGE HOME. 



"28th August, 1845. 

"This is the fifth day from Liverpool— a bIow strug-gling 
— very crowded ship, but a very solid and safe one — 160 pas- 
sengers, and accommodations for about 80 ! This and the 
Vv'hole administration of this enormous floating- hotel are 
really scandalous; but avarice dominates in the English 
heart and habits to a degree unknown as yet in our young 
countrj?-, notwithstanding the sneers and imputations of the 
hunger for ' dollars^ cast upon Jonathan by his sire John. 
Our table is fair, barring three important articles, butter, tea, 
and potatoes, which are abominable ; however, we are nearing 
home, and hope to make the passage in sixteen or eighteen 
days, but the motive with the English, to which I have re- 
ferred, induced the owners of this ship to make a change in 
her boilers;— contracting thus the space required for the 
engine and enlarging that for freight This change has 
ruined the noble vessel in and for her great end — speed ; she 
has lost in this respect at least one- third. * * * It is quite 
striking how much better our American sailing packets called 
'liners' are managed, conducted, and administered, in all 
points and respects. But in none is it more remarkable than 
in the manners, carriage, and conduct of the officers, and 
especially of the commanders. This is the second time that 
I have made a passage in an English vessel ! I would will- 
ingly pay 33 per cent, more to go in an American ship ; our 
people are more mild, courteous, considerate, and kind ! gen- 
tle in manners, manly, vigilant, and cautious in the manage- 
m.ent of their ships ! on this point I am not competent to 
decide which (English or American) is best. But let us 
admit equality^ yet / will say, that in every point, touching 
the domfort, ease, and satisfaction of the passengers, we beat 
John Bull vastly, as regards our captains ! The English con- 
stantly provoke the recollection, that they are mere ivages 
agents — servants of their owners ! In an American ship the 



VOYAGE HOME, 225 

^ captain's whole carriage and manners give you the idea that 
he is owner himself, and not a mere hired navigator, at so 
much a month ; I may liken the case to a drive with a friend, 
an amateur in horses, who holds the reins and ' tools the tits' 
and handles the ' ribbons' himself— or to a drive with a com- 
mon hired coachman on the box. The honest-hearted and 
independent Yankee makes no difference in his attentions 
and deportment to his passengers. He considers them as his 
guests, and even as something more, for they are more de- 
pendent on him, and their lives are confided to his skill and 
care, as well as their comfort. He is equally courteous, care- 
ful, and anxious about all his passengers. The Bull deals out 
his cold civilities with a view to what he considers the rela- 
tive rank of individuals ! To some, he is careless, rude, and 
even insolent. All this is the &uit of institutions. The 
Yankee never thinks of ra?2^—«Z^of proper conduct are equal 
in his eyesi He feels himself to be the equal of all — supe- 
rior to none. This is his birthright — he neither claims nor 
yields superiority. In a word, we surpass immeasurably our 
English cousins in courtesy and justice, and I believe that 
every American on board this ship (even to the coloured ser- 
vants), and we form three-fourths of the passengers, — think 
as I do ; nothing but necessity induces Americans to use these 
English steamers. And we generally feel humiliated at the 
fact, that this monopoly has been allowed to fall into English 
hands. The fact has lowered us in the opinions of foreign 
nations, as a nautical and enterprising people. We ought to 
build steamers^ 

An extremely severe tempest struck us when about two- 
thirds across the Atlantic, which lasted during an entire 
night. Most of the passengers who were not tossed out of 
their berths or from their sofas, remained in their state-rooms, 
and were quietly awaiting the result of tlie heaviest blow this 
fine ship has yet experienced ; during the worst period, I left 
my room to examine the state of affairs; every officer of the 



226 VOYAGE HOME. 

vessel was on duty the whole night ; descending to the en- 
gine room, I was perfectly astonished to see the accuracy 
with which the machinery operated under such unfavourable 
circumstances. At one moment the starboard wheel was 
nearly submerged ; at the next the larboard, and yet the 
engine worked with the regularity of a clock. There was 
no confusion among the crew ; every man stood at his post 
without uttering unnecessary words ; one bad a hammer in 
his hand to adjust any bolt that might get out of position ; and 
these hardy, picked men, were an example of disciplined at- 
tention which might be imitated to advantage. A French 
crew under similar circumstances would have exhibited a 
vociferous confusion that would have increased our danger. 

This scene, in the depths of the enormous ship, amid the 
powerful, the gigantic machinery, was one which I never 
can forget ; had a valve or a crank given out, the vessel 
would have been at the mercy of winds and waves ; most 
probably none of us would have reached land ; the boats pro- 
vided in case of shipwreck, were of such construction as^ 
made it out of the question that they could survive in such a 
sea ; and, moreover, they were not of sufficient capacity to 
hold more than half the number of passengers and crew, 
there being about two hundred and forty in all. 

After this severe storm had been left behind, one of the 
officers assured me that he had tried the pumps, and con- 
cluded it was necessary to let in some water to swell the 
planks ; the ship had not imbibed sufficient for the purpose ! 

If the Company who own this fine vessel would pay more 
attention to its cleanliness, and strictly prevent its being 
overcrowded, there cannot be a more agreeable or safer mode 
of conveyance. But she is infested with abominable vermin. 
One of my friends was awoke in the middle of the night, by 
a rat running over his face. Vociferation brought one of the 
night-watch, when, on turning up his pillow, a large rat-hole 
was discovered. Others were pitted as by small-pox by 
smaller troublesome unmentionables. This is too bad, and 



VOYAGE HOME. ^^27 

would scarcely be tolerated in an American steam-ship. 
Head winds prevailed during the passage, so that there was 
but one day during- which it was possiWe to carry all out 
sails. This, with the want of power in the boilers to gene- 
rate sufficient steam, kept us on board seventeen days, and 
left the ship but four or five in port to prepare for a return ; 
consequently there could have been little improvement in the 
cleanliness for the passengers going back. 

A card, of which the following is a copy, was signed by 
the American foreign ministers on board, and a few others 
who felt aggrieved at the conduct of the owners ; 1 republish 
it now, in order to do a service to the public, by placing pas- 
sengers on their guard; they have no guarantee against simi- 
lar impositions for the future. In the fall of the year the 
majority of tourists return, and thus crowd each other ; it 
was manifest that the owners thought, the more the merrier, 
for they took no measures to prevent any one from coming 
that chose to risk the want of a berth. 



THE CARD. 

The undersigned, passengers in the Great Western, upon 
her voyage from Liverpool to New York, cannot separate 
without expressing publicly their dissatisfaction with the 
owners of the Great Western, and particularly the agents, 
for the unwarrantable manner in which they allowed the 
boat to be over-crowded with passengers. It was not enough 
that every berth in the vessel should be let (in some cases 
let twice over), and that the officers of the ship should be 
turned out of their proper berths, but even the saloons were 
crowded with dormitories, — the air vitiated, — passengers in- 
commoded, — meals crowded, cold, and unsatisfactory, and 
the service insufficient. But, for the undersigned, whatever 
may have been the discomforts of the voyage, they are now 
over, and to the public, as the party most interested, they ^ 



228 VOYAGE HOME. 

appeal, to apply a corrective to the growing" practice of ocean 
.steani^rs taking more passengers than they can rightly ac- 

.; commodate upon a smooth passage, or save, if an accident 
should make it necessary to take to the boats, which, upon 
the present voyage, they think would have been found inade- 

:. q^ate to the safety of so many. 

„ In-closing, to the owners and agents we will say, and we 
use the language deliberately, that to those of us who had 
taken their passages regularly, and paid for them in advance, 
their conduct was practically (however intended) a gross in- 
justice. 

On board the Great Western, entering New York, 
9th September. 1845. 

"^ . ■• 

The captain became nettled when he heard of our card, 
and got a number of his countrymen to procure signatures to 
another, which was also published, in which not a word is 
said of the over crowd, further than to remark, that the 
stewards acted with promptness and alacrity, notwithstand- 
ing " the almost unprecedented number of passengers." Not 
a word was said in favour of the captain, as it was found on 
experiment that no one, or but a select few, would sign any 
thing of the kind ; nor does the second card attempt to in- 
sinuate that we were not grossly imposed upon by the over 
crowd. 

To me, this matter is now little more than a reminiscence, 
and yet I should deem myself derelict of duty did I not en- 
force what has been well said by Mr. Hughes in his letter to 
Henry Clay, adding my own testimony to the great supe- 
riority of American packet arrangements — civility, elegance, 
and comfort — over the foreign. 

I should have mentioned that there were on board half a 
dozen English gentlemen, including the member of Parlia- 
ment, whose sole object in visiting America was to learn 
something of our institutions, and to view our great country. 
I 'have since met them all in Philadelphia, and have be6n 



> 



VOYAGE HOME. 229 

gratified to find the scales of prejudice, cherished so carefully 
at home by many of their countrymen, have fallen from vtl\eir 
eyes; they have- been highly gratified with their several 
tours, via Niagara to the great West, and they have returned 
wiser and less prejudiced men. It i>by such interchange of 
visiters that we are to become known, and that we are to 
know Europe ; asperities of feeling will be removed, and the 
inhabitants of both the old and the new world generally dis- 
cover that both have something to learn ; fifty Americans^ 
visit Europe for the pleasure of travel, to one Englishman 
who does the same in the United States ; I cannot but wish, 
for the promotion of kindness and brotherly feeling, that the- 
number from both countries may increase. I have shown in 
my hasty notes, how easily a tour may be accomplished ; 
forty- eight hours were all I had for preparation for the entire 
journey ; five months and ten days was all the time of ab- 
sence. I must leave my readers to say whether this period, 
which comprised but one hundred and eighteen days in Eu- 
rope, was well or ill employed. 

Yours, &c. 



VOL. II. 20 



230 VOYAGE HOME, 



LETTER LXXXIIL 

Conclusion — Cost of such a tour ; its advantages — Now a good time to 
travel — Facilities — Proper books— False economy — A little well, or 
a great deal hastily — Pleasures of travelling — Advice — First greet- 
ing in America — New York — Home. 

Perhaps it will be acceptable to some of my readers to 
know the cost of such a tour as I have imperfectly sketched. 
The summer may thus be employed, say even six or seven 
months of pretty constant travel^ for the sum of ten or twelve 
hundred dollars for each person ; and this shall include the 
cost of passages, and living in the best manner on shore, tra- 
velling in the most comfortable conveyances, and lodging at 
the best hotels. Of course the amount of expense will de- 
pend on the taste and habits of the individual, and will be 
increased or lessened by the extent of his purchases of 
clothes, pictures, or articles of any kind. One of my com- 
panions out and home, informs me that he visited Rome, 
Naples, and Venice, Switzerland, &c,, and descended the 
Rhine, for less than one thousand dollars, all told. Surely there 
are great numbers in the United States who would gladly 
embrace the summer season for such a jaunt, did they know 
how readily and how economically it can be accomplished. 
My own experience convinces me, that by so doing, they may 
accumulate a store of wholesome reminiscences, a treasure 
of lively thoughts of men and things, a positive amount of 
enjoyment in the recollection, to be purchased in no other 



VOYAGE HOME. 231 

way so easily and so cheaply. Every one who has thus tra- 
velled, will enjoy books as well as society much more for the 
exertion he has made. In our own case, both my son and 
myself have derived benefit to health; this alone we consider 
compensation. 

There has never been a period of the world's history when 
foreign travel could be accomplished with so few difficulties, 
for Europe is at peace with itself; there never were so 
many facilities as now: these facilities are increasing every 
month ; railroads have penetrated most of the countries of 
Europe, almost annihilating the distances between the prin- 
cipal cities ; Germany is full of them ; you may go from 
London to Hamburgh, Dresden, Vienna, Berlin, &c., &.c., not 
to mention Paris and Brussels, by steam ; you may see twice 
as much for the same time and money as was the case even 
five or six years ago, and next season even more than now. 
Ways of communication are opening constantly ; the annoy- 
ances respecting passports and visees in Germany are de- 
creasing, and nowhere is this so unpalatable as formerly ; the 
servant of a hotel for a shilling or two attends to the whole 
affair. Examinations of baggage are generally conducted 
with civility ; travellers' money has become an important 
item of the income of every country, and facilities are given 
heretofore unknown ; Italy is the only exception : to visit 
that country, an American should leave home at the latest 
early in April, and go directly by the way of the Rhine or 
Paris to it, before the heat becomes too oppressive ; he should 
get from the department at Washington, or an American 
minister at London or Paris, a passport for every country he 
may hope to visit — and he should lose no opportunity of 
making himself acquainted by inquiry, or from books, with 
the most modern method of getting about The changes are 
now so rapid, that between the period of the publication of 
even the best guide-books, improvements or facilities have 
been increased of which he should be aware. Much is to be 
learned by conversation with those who have been before 



232 VOYAGE HOME. 

him. Memoranda from these should be sought and studied ; 
a guide-book should be read in advance of an arrival at any 
given point, and then reperused on the spot. 
" Some Americans whom I met on the continent were tra- 
velling without Murray's hand-books, because they were so nu- 
, merous and occupied a little too much space ; they employed 
a condensed work, which embraces the whole of the routes 
in one volume. I am justified in saying this is an error of the 
worst kind, and a very false econonjy. They had not seen 
many of the most interesting sights, nor had they the best 
advice regarding hotels, and such like important additions to 
comfort and equanimity of temper. 

The question with many when they set out will be whether 
to see a little loell, or a great deal hastily ; I preferred the 
latter, as it would enable me to read with more pleasure for 
the remainder of life: a hasty glance of the eye at many 
things is sufficient to fix them indelibly on the mind ; govern- 
ment, systems of education, politics, theories, can be studied 
on your return ; the most hasty tour will aid and assist the 
inquirer. Antiquities were to me the most surprising and 
interesting studies, because they were the newest to an Ame- 
rican eye. Great enjoyment is derived from contrast; the' 
first is the contrast of Europe with America, the next is in 
contrasting the different countries, buildings, customs, habits, 
and surfaces of its respective nations with each other; change 
— sometimes from one language to another in a day or an 
hour ; the gentle undulations of character and language, or 
habits on the borders of countries ; pictures and fine buildings ; 
characters — as developed in individuals with whom contact 
induces some sympathy ; a thousand novelties and scenes, are 
at hand constantly to interest, amuse, or instruct. It rubs off 
the mould from the minds of people chained to one regular 
oar — to one set of companions or ideas, to travel even rapidly 
as they must do if they are limited for time ; a man must be 
an ignorant and unobserving one, if he does not bring home 
to America, a greater love of bis own country, and a greater 



VOYAGE HOME. 233i 

opposition to kingly or priestly control ; thus there is no im- 
propriety in recommending all who can spare the time, to 
make the attempt. Having explained to several of my friends 
the facilities and inducements, a few^ of them will avail thetn- 
selves of the hint for a " Summer's Jaunt across the Water" 
next year ; possibly some readers of my notes may also be 
induced to think of the voyage ; they should go out in a sail- 
ing ship, and return in a steamer ; take with them money, 
a few letters, and a stock of patience and perseverance : if 
they visit only a few of the prominent objects in England 
alone, they will be fully repaid for their outlay. 

We sat ourselves down on the deck of the Great Western, 
as she touched the New York wharf, to hear the first words 
of greeting of relatives and friends who crowded the deck. 
The very first uttered were from a Yorker to his father — 
" How do you do — I calculated you would be in yesterday." 
We felt at home at once ! 

On walking about Broadway, it was striking enough to see 
the burnt district still smoking in one part, and the remainder 
already well built up ! evidences, if any were wanting, of a 
strong contrast between our countrymen and many people we 
have been to see. 

Persons returning home from Europe must be prepared to 
be asked by their acquaintances how they are, as if they saw 
them but yesterday ; a fact ably painted in the life of Cicero, 
who, from the zeal he had shown in executing his official 
duties, the high reputation he had acquired throughout Sicily 
during his government of that island, and the great benefit 
his exertions had conferred upon the people of Rome, by 
supplying their necessities in a time of general apprehension 
of want, might well flatter himself that his absence from 
home had at least been heard of. How was he disappointed 
on meeting some fashionables of that day, on his arrival at 
Puteoli, to be asked how long since he had left Rome, and 
what was the latest news in the metropolis] He indignantly 
replied, that so far from having visited Rome, he was but just 

20* 



234 VOYAGE HOME. 

returned from his province. "True; from Africa, I believe," 
said one : another observed, " How is it possible that you can 
be ignorant that our friend v^^as prsetor of Syracuse l" After 
enjoying yourself in Europe, dear reader, be prepared to meet 
v/ith a similar rebuff; learn, as others have before, how little 
you were missed, and with all humility, repeat Napoleon's 
maxim, that " no man is indispensable." 

I have thus admitted my readers to a confidential intercourse 
from the moment of departure till my return ; I must now 
draw the curtain over pleasures and satisfactions, in rejoining 
family and friends j which far exceeded anticipated reality 
abroad. 

Yours, &c. 



APPENDIX. 



The following graphic account of an ascent of the Rhigi, 
which feat I was unable to accomplish, has been kindly fur- 
nished by a friend and fellow-traveller, my state-room com- 
panion on board the Saranak, whom I had the pleasure of 
again meeting both in London and Paris, 



Communicated by a fellow-traveller. 

THE ASCENT 0-F THE RHrGI. 

Philadelphia Oct. 13, 1845. 
My dear Sir : — 

You ask me to fill a blank in your European tour by writing 
my recollections of the Rhigi and one or two other points of 
interest from which accident diverted your attention. I do so 
with a distrustful sort of pleasure, very well assured that your 
readers, accustomed to a fresh record of daily observation, 
will be apt to turn from the faint raemories of what I saw, 
though not more than three months ago. It is, I believe. Gray, 
in one of the brilliant letters written on his continental tour 
(one hundred and five years ago) who says : " Haifa word on 
or near the spot is worth a cart-load of recollections!" 
Perhaps the poet is right, and yet perhaps (so I flatter my- 
self) his condemnation of fresh recollections is a little unjust. 
Be this as it may, I will, in accordance with your request, 



236 APPENDIX. 

make the hazardous experiment of writing my mere recol- 
lections of a bright day of Swiss travelling-, — and this, too, 
without even the aid of the clumsy diary that I kept, and which 
at the moment when I am writing is accidentally out of my 
reach. It is but fair to myself to make this prefatory apology, 
lest, perliaps, a matter-of-fact reader may detect some flagrant 
inaccuracy of detail, and convict me of a miscount in the al- 
titude of some Alpine peak, or the depth of some Swiss lake. 
I do not, to this hour, know how high the Rhigi is ; all I know 
is, that I was on the top of it, and thence under the best cir- 
cumstances, bright sunset and brighter sunrise, witnessed 
what I am very sure neither written prose nor poetry can do 
justice to. 

We reached Lucerne on the evening of the 29th of June, 
after a long day's ride from Basle, finding ourselves about 
sunset driving close to the banks of the Reuss, which forming 
the outlet of the lake, rushes by like a torrent. If the 
waters of the Rhone at Geneva be " arrowy," those of the 
Reuss just at this point fly still faster than the arrow. They 
are of a deep green colour, and no American traveller sees 
them without remembering the tint of the Niagara below the 
cataract when viewed from the cliffs round " the Devil's 
Hole." I recollect all this the more distinctly as it was im- 
pressed on my mind when startled from a long sleep, the fruit 
of fatigue and an easy coach, as we drove into the quaint old 
town of Lucerne. 

The next morning looked gloomily on us. Our accommo- 
dations over night had been bad, and heavy mists, occasionally 
ripening into rain, hung over the Rhigi, whither our hopes 
were directed, as well as on Mount Pilatus, the great oppo- 
sition peak of the neighbourhood on the other side of the 
lake. The forenoon, however, gradually brightened, and by 
ten o'clock our chances of fair weather and a tolerable pros- 
pect had increased. Soon after, being anxious to be ahead of 
the crowd of passengers which at noon takes the steamboat, 
we hired a small row-boat, and with luggage sufficient for one 



APPENDIX. 237 

night's absence, set out on our Rhig-i adventure. Now, to 
those who have made Oberland journeys, who have crossed 
the Gemmi, or committed any of these wanton extravagances 
that some people indulge in, the ascent of the Rhigi may 
seem a very small affair indeed. But to a traveller accus- 
tomed to Chestnut Hill and the Ridge Road, and who never 
saw any thing higher than the Catskill or the Cove Mountain, 
over which a stage-coach comfortably travels, this muleback 
pilgrimage to the Rhigi culm, with its mysterious accompa- 
niments of guides and iron-pointed staffs (Alpenstocks), was a 
great event. Our sail along the shore of the lake was very 
placid, our course being close to the land, which as we ad- 
vanced grew gradually bolder, but still not bold enough to meet 
the expectation which guide-book descriptions had raised. We 
were still unanimous in our loyalty to Lake George and the 
Highlands. We reached Weggis in about an hour and a 
half. It is a little town on the edge of the lake, consisting 
of a church, a few stragglmg houses, and a bad inn, against 
whose seductions in the shape of a promised dinner I warn 
the inexperienced traveller. 

This penalty paid, we were ready to set out, and horses at 
the door, we were soon on the mountain road. Our party 
consisted of two American young ladies, full of spirit and gay 
adventure, three American gentlemen, and two Irish tra- 
vellers. Our mounted appearance was grotesque enough; 
but there was no one to laugh at us, and if there had been, 
it would have made little difference. Three of our com- 
panions preferred walking, and trudged manfully along in the 
burning sun for the three hours of our painful ascent. At 
first the path winds through a dense wood, from which, how- 
ever it soon emerged, and we began literally to scale the side 
of the mountain. So for more than an hour, perhaps for two, 
did it continue, and though without absolute danger, still with 
sufBcient apparent risk at intervals to make one who is ner- 
vous draw back from the edge of precipices down which it 
was enough to know horse and rider might fall to destruction. 



238 APPENDIX. 

Nor was I aware of the height to which we were rising till 
my eye rested on the gulf4ike appearance of the surrounding 
mountains, and the lake below shrunk to the narrowest limits 
at their base. The steamboat crossing to Fluellen looked like 
a speck. At length, chariging our course and crossing a com- 
paratively level place, over which Swiss boys were driving 
their straggling cows and singing wild melodies, we came to 
the Kaltesbad, or lower hotel. Pausing here for a few mo- 
ments to let our foot companions " blow," we were very soon 
made sensible of its elevation by the change of temperature. 
It began to be quite cold, and occasionally wreaths of mist en- 
veloped us and gave us a chilling welcome to their home of 
cloud. From this point or a little above, the view back to- 
wards the lake, now sunk almost jout of sight, is very striking. 
But beautiful as it is, it was in a few moments forgotten in 
the enthusiasm, almost amounting to a sickening feeling of 
pleasurable amazement, produced by the great panorama 
which, on crossing the edge of the mountain, burst on us to 
the north. And remembering it as I now do with all the 
freshness of a sight of yesterday, I feel most painfully the in- 
adequacy of written or spoken words to do justice in its most 
meagre form to what I saw or felt. It was difficult — nay, it 
was impossible (scoff not, unimaginative reader) to restrain a 
cry of admiration and astonishment. Before us lay what one 
of my companions used to describe as "forty thousand miles'' 
of cultivated lands, with the lakes of Zurich, Zug, Lucerne, 
and Sempach at our feet. The northern limit of the view 
was the Black Forest and the ridges of the Vosges hiding the 
course of the Rhine, whilst the Reuss like a bright riband of 
light lay at our feet. Pilatus was close on the left, his craggy 
peak cleared of all cloud and mist, looking down on the spot 
where we stood. Towns, too, Lucerne, Kusnacht, and 
Gersau, were in view ; but in such a magnificent panorama of 
gigantic nature, towns and houses seemed to be creeping 
into crevices of the hills and trying to get out of sight. 
Never, if I were to live for centuries, so it seems to me now, 



APPENDIX. 239 

will 1 or any one of those who saw and felt as I did, forget 
the prospect of the moment as we crossed to the edge of the 
northern side of the Rhigi, and to which in these few sen- 
tences I have done so poor justice. Many years ago, more 
than I care to confess, when quite a boy, I saw the plain of 
Mexico from the summit of its surrounding hills, and from the 
point, or nearly so, whence Cortez first saw it. And bright 
and beautiful as it was, with its rich and romantic associa- 
tions, it made far less impression on my boy fancy than this 
first glimpse of the Rhigi panorama did upon an imagination 
a little (I trust not much) chilled and hardened by the lapse 
of time. 

We did not pause long, and hoping for something still more 
magnificent, hurried on, and in about three hours from leaving 
Weggis, after passing several very ugly corners, down which 
one could fall at least four thousand feet without a chance of 
rescue, reached the solitary tavern on the summit of the 
mountain. Securing ourselves good rooms, one of them 
facing to that quarter where the Alps should be seen, we 
wandered to the point whence the great Rhigi prospect is 
best commanded. Near the edge is built a wooden lookout, 
some twenty feet high ; but though as a matter of course I 
scrambled up and down again, it seemed then, and seems now, 
as absurd, as it would have been to stand on the top of a chair 
or table to enlarge the circle of the vision on such a summit. 
From this point is the great panoramic view for which the 
Rhigi is so celebrated. I have said so much of the impression 
made upon me by the first glimpse of a portion of this scene, 
that nothing is left for admiration at the more complete view 
here commanded. All that we first saw is here comprised, 
and farther to the right and towards the rear, as you stand 
looking to the north, is the ghastly site, the wreck looking as 
fresh as if it were the work of yesterday, of the Rossberg, 
where, in 1806, the side of a mountain sank down on the 
plain below, overwhelming the village of Goldau, and carrying 
wholesale ruin and desolation in its track. Nearly five hun- 



240 APPENDIX. 

dred persons perished in this terrible catastrophe. Further 
to the right are the peaks of the Mitres and the village of 
Schwyts, and still farther are the mountain gorges, amongst 
which, in 1799, Massena and Suwarrow manceuvred armies, 
where, (so say the guide-books,) only chamois and their 
hunters ventured before. This is not the place for a notice of 
these wonderful military operations, the most wonderful, in 
view of surrounding difficulties, of those days of great military 
prowess. The recent associations almost banished from my 
thoughts the recollection of Tell and his antique fame, and 
yet directly under our feet was Kusnacht, the spot where the 
patriot shot the Austrian despot. 

As sunset drew near the crowd of visiters began to assemble. 
And let me say, a crowd of curiosity-hunters, or any crowd at 
such a time, is a great annoyance. One neither wants to 
talk nor to be talked to. The feeling I had, and it seemed to 
grow every moment I watched, was that I was neither on the 
earth nor of it, but hung above in a balloon or on the pro- 
montory of some near planet, looking upon a different land. 
The atmosphere grew brighter as the sun went down, and 
just at this moment, my attention was called b)'^ one of my 
fair American friends, to the dark shadow of the mountain, 
on which we stood, rising on the eastern hills, as if the spectre 
of the Rhigi was coming from some cavern of the hills, to 
snatch from us the bright prospect on which we gazed. Very 
soon after, night set in, the sunset view having been com- 
plete, with the exception of the dense clouds that rested on 
the southern range of the Alps, and wholly hid them from us. 
A stroll, not solitary, in the cold star-light, to the edge of the 
precipice, completed our evening. We were all glad, a com- 
fortable dinner being despatched, to cluster round the big 
stoves, and soon to take refuge on a welcome bed. 

One of our American companions had been on the Rhigi 
before, and felt great solicitude that we, who were new to it, 
should see every thing to the best advantage. The sunset 



APPENDIX. 241 

had been eminently successful, but who could say what would 
be to-morrow ! A good sunrise as well as a good sunset was 
more than we had a right to expect. There are some guide- 
book verses that every traveller knows by rote, which are be- 
lieved to embody the experience of nine-tenths of visiters 
here. They run thus, 

Seven weary up-hill leagues we sped, 

The setting sun to see ; 
Sullen and grim he went to bed, 

Sullen and grim went we. 
Nine sleepless hours of night we passed, 

The rising sun to see ; 
Sullen and grim he rose again, 

Sullen and grim rose we. 

How any one but a poet could find " nine" hours of night to 
pass, and how any one who had walked or ridden up the 
Rhigi, could find them " sleepless," I am at a loss to conceive. 
We had but about four hours, and were sound asleep when 
the cheering voice of our experienced friend was heard 
calling out in tones of exultation, as if the Alps were his 
children of whom he was proud, who had been sulky yesterday, 
but were now bright and cheerful, " Oh , look at the gla- 
ciers now !" — and to be sure, glaciers being a sort of myste- 
rious novelty to the rest of us, we were soon out of bed and 
dressed, and from the entry window gazed on the long line of 
the Alps to the southward, without a cloud or even a shadow 
of mist to obscure them. 

In a few minutes the sound of the huge wooden horn, so 
familiar to Rhigi visiters, was heard, and in every little 
chamber of the hotel, travellers were bustling about anxious 
lest the sun should be up before them. Our party was on the 
ridge first, and soon the company of pilgrims began to assemble* 
It was very cold, and each one, wrapped in coat and cloak, as 
he or she struggled up the hill, looked more cheerless than 
his predecessor. A less picturesque group can hardly be 

VOL. II. 21 



242 APPENDIX. 

imagined. What the garb of some travellers sometimes is, 
may be inferred from the notice posted on the chamber doors 
at the hotel : " On avertit MM. les etrangers que ceux qui 
prennent les couvertures de lit pour sortir au sommet, paieront 
dix batz." — (Strangers are informed that those who use the 
counterpanes of the beds to visit the summit, will be charged 
ten batz, about 30 cents.) This penalty seemed to have its 
due influence, for I saw no coverlets in use this morning. 

The view differed only from that of the night before in 
this, that heavy banks of fog rested over and entirely hid the 
lakes and portions of the level country to the north, that the 
angle of light was very different, and the whole range of 
the Bernese and Unterwalden Alps were in distinct view, 
presenting one unbroken ridge of peaks and glaciers, over a 
portion of which in one direction runs the Great St. Gothard 
pass. The sun soon rose in all its clear majesty, and in the 
west the conical shadow of the Rhigi was again discernible, 
sinking vanquished before the power of morning light. My 
impression is, however, that on the whole the evening view 
in its general effect excelled that of the morning. And here, 
having done it very poor justice indeed, I must close this 
record of my Swiss experience. 

Breakfast over at a few minutes after six, we began the 
descent of the mountain on foot, and in about two hours were 
at Weggis, whence we took the lake steamboat, and before 
noon had reached our quarters at Lucerne. We were so 
little fatigued that in the afternoon we were ready again to 
embark, and visited every part of this magnificent sheet of 
water, going as far as Fluellen and Altorf, stopping at the 
latter just long enough to see the spot where tradition says 
that Tell shot the apple from his son's head, and where a 
commemorative column and fountain are erected. But I 
spare you this. From the morning's dawn at the mountain- 
top, to the evening reflection of the Alpine peaks in the still 
waters of the lake, my day has been filled to overflowing 



APPENDIX. 243 

with objects of beauty and feelings of deep and singular in- 
tensity, the very allusion to which, I am aware, may be the 
object of deserved ridicule. Still, you asked me for my 
genuine recollections, and here you have them. 



THE END. 



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